[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1814 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1814

  To provide incentives for Indian tribes to collect and pay lawfully 
imposed State sales taxes on goods sold on tribal lands and to provide 
 for penalties against Indian tribes that do not collect and pay such 
                           State sales taxes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 13, 1999

 Mr. Visclosky (for himself, Mr. Istook, Mr. Sandlin, Mr. LaHood, Mr. 
Roemer, Mr. McIntosh, Mr. Skelton, Mr. Coble, Mr. Souder, Mrs. Myrick, 
  Mr. Hostettler, Mrs. Emerson, Mr. Ney, Mr. Nethercutt, Mr. Hill of 
    Montana, Mr. Sessions, Mr. Tancredo, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. 
 Rothman, Mr. Buyer, Mr. Graham, and Mr. Canady of Florida) introduced 
  the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To provide incentives for Indian tribes to collect and pay lawfully 
imposed State sales taxes on goods sold on tribal lands and to provide 
 for penalties against Indian tribes that do not collect and pay such 
                           State sales taxes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. INCENTIVE FOR INDIAN TRIBES TO ENSURE COLLECTION OF STATE 
              SALES TAXES.

    Priority among Indian tribes competing for Federal grants shall be 
given to Indian tribes that certify, through a process established by 
the Secretary in consultation with the States, that retail 
establishments operating on trust lands within a tribe's jurisdiction 
are collecting and paying to the appropriate State all qualified State 
retail taxes.

SEC. 2. CERTIFICATION OF FAILURE TO PAY TAX.

    If an Indian or Indian tribe consistently and willfully fails--
            (1) to pay any qualified State retail tax on any retail 
        item sold, by a retail establishment located on land that is 
        held in trust for the benefit of the Indian or Indian tribe, to 
        a person who is not either a member of the Indian tribe on 
        behalf of which the land is held in trust or a member of the 
        same Indian tribe as the Indian for whom the land is held in 
        trust;
            (2) to make equal payment to the State in lieu of such 
        qualified State retail tax; or
            (3) to make payment to a State pursuant to a compact 
        governing the payment of qualified State retail tax between the 
        Indian or Indian tribe and the State,
then the Governor or the Attorney General of the State may document and 
certify such failure to the Assistant Secretary and request that the 
land upon which the structure which houses the retail establishment is 
located be taken out of trust status.

SEC. 3. NOTICE OF REQUEST; COMMENT PERIOD.

    (a) Notice.--
            (1) Federal register.--Not later than 30 days after 
        receiving documentation, certification, and a request from the 
        Governor or attorney general of a State in accordance with 
        section 2, the Assistant Secretary shall publish notice of the 
        request and the reason therefor in the Federal Register.
            (2) Other notice.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall promulgate rules 
        to ensure prompt notification of any Indian or Indian tribe 
        regarding whose land a request for removal from trust has been 
        made under section 2, the time and manner in which the Indian 
        or Indian tribe has to respond to the request, and the Indian 
        or Indian tribe's rights regarding the request.
    (b) Comment Period.--The Assistant Secretary shall provide a period 
of 90 days after the publication pursuant to subsection (a) for 
interested persons to submit comments on the request.
    (c) Hearing.--
            (1) In general.--If a request is made under this Act for 
        removal of an Indian or Indian tribe's land from trust, the 
        Indian or Indian tribe may request a timely hearing on the 
        request to remove such land from trust.
            (2) Time period.--If a hearing is requested under paragraph 
        (1) not later than 60 days after the publication pursuant to 
        subsection (a), the Secretary shall grant the hearing request. 
        A hearing under this paragraph shall be held not later than the 
        expiration of the 90-day period provided for comment under 
        subsection (b).
            (3) Regulations.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
        the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall promulgate 
        regulations to implement this section.

SEC. 4. INVESTIGATION; PUBLICATION OF FINDINGS.

    (a) Investigation.--Upon receipt of documentation, certification, 
and a request from the Governor or attorney general of a State in 
accordance with section 2, the Assistant Secretary shall begin an 
investigation to verify that the Indian or Indian tribe consistently 
and willfully failed to make payment described in paragraph (1), (2), 
or (3) of section 2 as documented and certified by the Governor or 
attorney general of the State.
    (b) Determination.--Not later than 60 days after the completion of 
the 90-day notice and comment period required by subsections 2(a) and 
2(b), the Assistant Secretary shall publish the results of the 
investigation in the Federal Register.

SEC. 5. REMOVAL OF LAND FROM TRUST.

    (a) In General.--If the Assistant Secretary determines pursuant to 
section 4 that an Indian or Indian tribe consistently and willfully 
failed to make payment described in paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of 
section 2 in relation to any retail item sold by a retail establishment 
located on land that is held in trust for the benefit of the Indian or 
Indian tribe to a person who is not either a member of the Indian tribe 
on behalf of which the land is held in trust or a member of the same 
Indian tribe as the Indian for whom the land is held in trust, the 
Assistant Secretary shall inform the Secretary of such determination. 
Upon receipt of such determination, the Secretary shall remove from 
trust status such land as the Secretary determines to constitute the 
extent of the retail operations.
    (b) Effect of Removal From Trust.--Removal of land from trust under 
this Act shall eliminate tribal authority regarding taxation and make 
the property subject to all applicable State and local sales taxes on 
goods purchased on such land regardless of the purchaser's status as a 
tribal member.
    (c) Effect of Payment or Agreement To Pay.--If, before the 
Secretary removes land from trust status pursuant to subsection (a), 
the Indian or Indian tribe that was determined to have failed to make 
payment described in paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of section 2, makes all 
such payments to the State or enters into an agreement with the State 
to make such payment, the Governor or attorney general of the State, 
the Indian, or the Indian tribe may inform the Assistant Secretary of 
such payment or agreement and request that the land not be removed from 
trust status. If the Governor or the attorney general of a State so 
requests, the Assistant Secretary shall immediately inform the 
Secretary of the request and the land shall not be removed from trust 
status unless new documentation, certification, and a new request is 
submitted, published, and investigated in accordance with this Act.
    (d) Appeal of Decision.--The Secretary's determination under this 
section shall be final agency action for purposes of judicial review.
    (e) Trust Status Restored.--The Secretary shall take into trust for 
the benefit of an Indian or an Indian tribe any land that was held in 
trust for that Indian or Indian tribe but was taken out of trust in 
accordance with the provisions of this Act, if each State in which such 
land is located certifies to the Secretary that, for not less than 1 
year following such removal, the Indian or Indian tribe has made all 
applicable payments described in section 2 to the State or has entered 
into an agreement with the State to make such payment.

SEC. 6. ELIGIBILITY FOR BENEFITS.

    For the purposes of the delivery of services and benefits furnished 
to federally recognized Indian tribes and members of such tribes, land 
taken out of trust pursuant to this Act shall be considered part of the 
service area of the Indian tribe on behalf of which the land was held 
in trust or the Indian tribe of the Indian on whose behalf the land was 
held in trust.

SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.

    For the purposes of this Act--
            (1) the term ``Assistant Secretary'' means the Assistant 
        Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs;
            (2) the term ``Indian'' means any individual who is a 
        member of an Indian tribe;
            (3) the term ``Indian tribe'' means any federally 
        recognized Indian tribe, band, nation, pueblo, or other 
        organized group or community, excluding any Alaska Native 
        village or regional corporation as defined in or established 
        pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act;
            (4) the term ``qualified State retail tax'' means a 
        lawfully imposed, nondiscriminatory State excise or sales tax 
        on any retail item sold by a retail establishment located on 
        land that is held in trust for the benefit of the Indian or 
        Indian tribe to a person who is not either a member of the 
        Indian tribe on behalf of which the land is held in trust or a 
        member of the same Indian tribe as the Indian for whom the land 
        is held in trust; and
            (5) the term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of the 
        Interior.

SEC. 8. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY.

    Except as otherwise provided in this Act, not less than 90 days 
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall issue 
interim rules to implement the provisions of this Act.
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