September 17, 2025
| TO: Indian Gaming Association Member Tribes FROM: Ernest L. Stevens Jr., Chairman Jason Giles, Executive Director RE: Urgent Legislative Alert: Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act Date: September 17, 2025 |
| Today the Senate Indian Affairs Committee marked up S. 1301, the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act (TLSA). Please write and call your Senators and Representatives in support of S. 1301, Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act to restore the original treatment of Indian tribes as exempt governments under the National Labor Relations Act. The TLSA will reverse the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) misguided 2004 decision in San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino by clarifying that Tribal governments and governmental enterprises are excluded from the application of the NLRA. The NLRA expressly exempts governmental employers, including the United States and “State or political subdivision” employers, including business enterprises operated by these entities. The NLRB has interpreted the NLRA’s government exemption for “State or political subdivisions” to also implicitly include the District of Columbia and all U.S. territories and possessions. In 1976, the Board in Fort Apache Timber Company interpreted this exemption to also include tribal governments and on-reservation commercial enterprises owned and operated by tribal governments. However, in 2004, the NLRB overturned Fort Apache, ruling that the NLRA applies to Indian gaming enterprises owned and operated by tribal governments. The Board in San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino reasoned that the Tribe’s casino is a “purely commercial enterprise” that “employs significant numbers of non-Indians” and “caters to a non-Indian clientele that lives off the reservation.” The Ninth Circuit upheld the NLRB San Manuel ruling in 2007. The Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act would amend the NLRA to treat tribes rightfully as sovereigns by excluding tribes and tribal government-owned and operated enterprises in the same manner as enterprises owned and operated by all other sovereigns within the United States, including States, State political subdivisions (counties, cities, municipalities), the District of Columbia, and all U.S. territories and possessions. Attached for your use is a model letter to send to the Chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and your congressional delegation. Please contact Danielle Her Many Horses, General Counsel at dhermanyhorses@indiangaming.org if you have any questions regarding this alert. Download DRAFT Model Letter Here |
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