From ICT:

NEW YORK – Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., says the Obama administration will make a critical decision on off-reservation gaming policy in the coming weeks.

Schumer told the Times Herald Online that he recently spoke with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who is reviewing a “guidance memorandum” issued by former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in January 2008. The controversial guidance placed a new hurdle on land into trust applications for gaming – a “commutability” standard under which the applied-for land is to be considered in light of its distance from a nation’s reservation, regardless of whether it is within a nation’s historical territories.

The memo caused an uproar across Indian country, not only because distance isn’t mentioned in the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, but also because the guidance effectively amounted to a new regulation that had been promulgated without consultation with the nations, raising memories of the days of federal paternalism and policies to keep Indians on reservations.
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