[HPN] Senator Bond threatens to bar HUD funded American Indian smoke shops shops

[Tom Boland]

"The smoke shop dispute is one of several between Bond and
Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo. Bond also is challenging HUD's
authority to sue gun makers over violence in public housing as well
as its role in a politically charged squabble over New York
homelessness funding that has become an issue in the Senate race
between Hillary Clinton and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani."
-- from article below

http://newsfinder.arinet.com/fpweb/fp.dll/$stargeneral/htm/x_dv.htm/_ibyx/cg0302
6/_itox/starnet/_svc/news/_Id/640760161/_k/4ocqN0LNvmv4ykRu
FWD  Associated Press - AP Wire Service - Feb 20, 2000

MIFFED AT HUD REPLY,BOND THREATENS TO BAR FUNDING OF SMOKE SHOPS

By LIBBY QUAID
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON, DC (AP) _ Missouri Sen. Christopher Bond is warning
federal housing officials he may seek to block further government
funding of American Indian smoke shops, including some in Oklahoma
and Nevada.

Bond issued a report last month detailing how the Department of
Housing and Urban Development doled out $4.2 million to American
Indian smoke shops and truck stops that sell cheaper cigarettes.
The GOP lawmaker chairs the Appropriations Committee panel that
controls HUD's budget.

Dissatisfied with the agency's response, Bond said Sunday, ``It
now appears we may need to legislate a common-sense solution for
HUD.''

Agency spokesman David Egner replied that since HUD has no
authority to ban sales of legal products in businesses it funds,
Congress would need to do just that.

``HUD told Sen. Bond last June that we would quickly implement
any law barring HUD funding of businesses that sell tobacco
products,'' Egner said.

Tribal activists, meantime, accused Bond of prejudice for
singling out Indian tribes.

``He's not attacking those large corporations who utilize the
large discount stores, who pride themselves on underselling their
competitors,'' said W. Ron Allen, chairman of the Jamestown
S'Klallam Tribe and an official of the National Congress of
American Indians, which is meeting in Washington later this week.

``As far as we're concerned, that is racist and discriminatory,''
Allen added.

Bond's spokesman, Dan Hubbard, said Bond will await an apology
for the charge of discrimination. ``In the meantime, he awaits an
explanation as to why it's a good idea to use taxpayer dollars to
underwrite the sale of discount cigarettes,'' Hubbard said.

Bond argues that studies show cheaper cigarettes may encourage
youth smoking, and he urged HUD to halt the subsidies. He said
Sunday: ``HUD needs to find alternative ways to encourage economic
development for our populations in need without endangering the
health of our children.''

However, HUD has insisted it has no legal authority to stop the
grants. A HUD official reiterated the point in a letter to Bond
last week.

``We believe there are serious policy, programmatic and legal
constraints against such an action,'' Hal DeCell, HUD's assistant
secretary for congressional relations, wrote in the letter to Bond.

The letter said information provided by Bond does not establish
a direct link between the federal smoke shop funds and increased
teen smoking, and, therefore, the nature of a negative impact on
the community ``related to such an assumed relationship is
unavoidably speculative.''

Bond said he was ``flabbergasted'' by HUD's response and called
it ``a page right out of the tobacco lawyer handbook.''

``For years big tobacco companies and their lawyers claimed
there was no causal relationship between smoking and cancer, and
now HUD uses that same kind of argument to defend its HUD-funded
smoke shops,'' the senator said.

Bond himself has come under fire for past votes supporting the
tobacco industry, from opposing several proposed tobacco taxes to
opposing 1998 legislation curbing teen smoking and bringing
nicotine under federal regulation.

Egner, HUD's spokesman, said Bond mischaracterized the letter
and that ``we are simply asking the senator to provide us with any
information he has showing that Indian-owned stores are more likely
to violate laws banning the sale of cigarettes to minors than are
non-Indian stores.''

The smoke shop dispute is one of several between Bond and
Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo. Bond also is challenging HUD's
authority to sue gun makers over violence in public housing as well
as its role in a politically charged squabble over New York
homelessness funding that has become an issue in the Senate race
between Hillary Clinton and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

The senator ordered his latest report after learning last spring
of a 1997 community development block grant to the Reno Sparks
Indian Colony in Verdi, Nev. The agency responded that ``only one''
smoke shop received such a grant, but research turned up a
half-dozen awards, and a Senate staffer traveled to Oklahoma to see
_ and videotape _ the smoke shops first-hand.

In Oklahoma, the Chickasaw Nation received $750,000 apiece for
stores in Thackerville and Ada, while the Choctaw Nation won
$750,000 each for Broken Bow and Poteau stations. In addition, the
Muscogee Creek Nation won $750,000 for a store in Muskogee.

In 1998 in Oklahoma, HUD awarded $750,000 each to a Chickasaw
Nation project in Ada, a Choctaw Nation store in Poteau and a
Muscogee Creek store in Muskogee. In 1997, $750,000 each went to
the Chickasaws for a Thackerville shop and the Choctaws for a
Broken Bow station.

Tribes defend their role, arguing that tobacco is just one of
the many legal products they sell to match their non-Indian
competitors. The travel plazas create jobs and boost income, taxes
and retail sales for communities, Choctaw Nation Chief Gregory E.
Pyle said earlier.

AP-WS-02-20-00 2128EST
Received  Id AP1000513C10AE33 on Feb 20 2000 20:28

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