Tribal gaming: compact ratification.

Assembly Member Soria, joined by principal coauthor Assembly Member Blanca Rubio, advances a measure to ratify the fourth amendment to California’s gaming compact with the Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians and to codify a targeted CEQA exemption framework tied to that compact, taking effect immediately as an urgency statute. The proposal places the ratified amendment within California’s constitutional framework for tribal-state gaming and establishes a narrowly scoped environmental review carve-out for related actions.

The measure creates a new provision in the Government Code that ratifies the fourth amendment to the state–tribal gaming compact, executed on June 4, 2025, and ratified under federal IGRA authority. It also provides that, in deference to tribal sovereignty, certain compact-related actions are not considered “projects” for CEQA purposes: the execution of the ratified compact, the execution of an amended compact ratified by the section, intergovernmental agreements between a tribe and local governments negotiated under the compact’s authority, intergovernmental agreements with state agencies negotiated under that authority, and the on-reservation impacts of compliance with the compact. All other CEQA requirements remain in place for actions not expressly exempted.

Section 2 designates the act as an urgency statute with immediate effect, subject to the constitutional 2/3 vote requirement, and explicates that the impetus is to support the economic development and self-sufficiency of the tribe and related public interests. The bill requires Fiscal Committee review but includes no direct appropriation. By establishing a new Government Code section, the measure ties the ratified amendment and its associated CEQA exemptions to the state’s environmental review framework while preserving CEQA applicability to non-exempt actions and maintaining standard enforcement mechanisms for actions outside the enumerated carve-outs. The overall framework aligns California’s regulatory approach with federal gaming law while defining a limited, action-specific environmental review pathway for compact-related activities.