Motion to approve the board minutes from March 31, 2019 by Andy Ebona. Seconded by Greg Abrahamson. Motion passed unanimously . 5. Chairman’s Report a. Tradeshow Update Chairman Ernest Stevens – We have charts in the book that detail the financials from 2012 through this year’s tradeshow. b. Mid-Year Update Mohegan Sun – We are excited to be here this year. We have golf tomorrow with the Welcome Reception starting at 6:00 pm. Our Membership meeting is at 9:00 am on Wednesday. This year we are honoring Chairman Rodney Butler from Mashantucket Pequot for the John Keiffer Award. Please come to the luncheon to help us to honor him and the work he does for not only Mashantucket, but Indian Country as a whole.
6. Executive Director’s Report a. Legislative Updates
Jason Giles – It was leaked late last night that Senators Mitt Romney and Chuck Schumer are working on a federal sports betting bill that among other things would not allow College Football betting. The NFL (headquartered in Schumer’s state) want transaction fees for using what they are calling their intellectual property. It is moving state by state and tribes are starting to exercise their Tribal sovereignty rights. The Trump Administration is moving the Department of Land Management to Grand Junction, Colorado. The FBI rolled the Indian Country division into Major Crimes which deals with more urban issues making Tribes a lower priority. Trump sent out an executive order to reduce everything by 10% everything they don’t need is mandated to be cut, i.e. advisory committees. Tribes need to be proactive and protect their interests and sovereign immunity. The courts are not friendly to tribes right now. We do not want to go to a federal court on a case that could threaten the sovereign immunity of all Tribes right now. We have an example letter for Tribes to send to their representatives in Congress dealing with Self-Determination, Sovereign Immunity, and Risk Management. Mark Van Norman – Some of the lower courts have noticed there is a footnote in the Bay Mills court case. Footnote 8 states if this is a tort claim and the tribe doesn’t have a tort system in place, so we are not addressing that. Some of the tort issues coming up are under drug patent cases, online lending, and the Wilkes case in Alabama that ruled Poarch Creek had no sovereign immunity. We will follow up
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