VICE-CHAIRMAN’S REPORT DAVID Z BEAN Puyallup Tribe of Indians
W elcome to Anaheim and thank you for taking the t ime to read my report . I t is an honor to serve as your Vice-Chai rman of the Indian Gaming Associat ion. This wi l l be our f i rst regular ly scheduled Tradeshow since the Covid-19 Pandemic began and i t has certainly been a tough road over the past two years. Dur ing this t imeframe the Associat ion exper ienced several chal lenges, both f iscal ly and administrat ive, as did al l Tr ibal Governments. We began last year wi th a new Congress and President whi le st i l l working through the pandemic and the vaccine rol l -out . As we proved throughout , Indian Country’s greatest strength remains our abi l i ty to adapt to any si tuat ion and safeguard our Tr ibal Ci t izens. Wi th new pol i t ical leadership in Washington D.C. , and new leadership at the Federal Agencies ( including Inter ior Secretary Deb Haaland of Laguna Pueblo), the Associat ion remained act ive on many pol icy fronts, both legislat ive and regulatory. From the outset of the pandemic in March 2019, the Associat ion worked in conjunct ion wi th other Tr ibal Organizat ions to secure over $30 bi l l ion in di rect Covid aid to Tr ibal Governments. This was the resul t of decades of Indian Country’s advocacy and work on Capi tol Hi l l , resul t ing in something previous generat ions of Indian f ighters dreamed of achieving, the respect in Congress and Federal Agencies for Sovereign Tr ibal Governments.
8 INDIAN GAMING - ANNUAL REPORT 2022
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