SANTA YNEZ BAND OF CHUMASH INDIANS 

BUSINESS COMMITTEE 

KENNETH KAHN, CHAIRMAN 

RAUL ARMENTA, VICE-CHAIRMAN 

P.O. BOX 517 ·SANTA YNEZ· CA· 93460 

Tel: 805.688.7997 ·Fax: 805.686.9578 

www.santaynezchumash.org 

MAXINE LITTLEJOHN, SECRETARY-TREASURER 

MIKE LOPEZ, COMMITTEE MEMBER 

GARY PACE, COMMITTEE MEMBER 

November 15, 2017 

Mr. J onodev Chaudhuri, Chairman 

National Indian Gaming Commission 

1849 C Street NW 

Mailstop #1621 

Washington, DC 20240 

J 

I ) 

,_: 

Re: Comments on October 17, 2017 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Amending FOIA Procedures 

in 25 C.F .R. § 517 

Dear Chairman Chaudhuri: 

On behalf of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, we hereby submit the following comments on 

the National Indian Gaming Commission's ("NIGC") Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("Proposed 

Rule") issued on October 17, 2017[1] containing proposed amendments to 25 C.F.R. Part 517 ("Part 

517"), Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") procedures for the NIGC. The United States Congress 

has amended FOIA twice since the last comprehensive revisions to Part 517 on April 19, 2006.[2] We 

are pleased that the NIGC is now willing to take up the important task of updating Part 517 to reflect 

the latest amendments to FOIA, and we applaud the NIGC's efforts to bring greater clarity and 

transparency to the FOIA process. 

While we generally support the NIGC's efforts to streamline FOIA processing, we are deeply 

concerned with the proposal to remove the term "record" from the definitions section of the 

regulation. It is unclear to us whether this action was due to an oversight or an intentional omission 

since the Proposed Rule does not provide any explanation for this proposed change. 

Nonetheless, we find the proposed removal of such a critical definition to be deeply troubling. The 

term is not only used repeatedly throughout Part 517, but is the very term that describes what is being 

sought in a FOIA request. The term is, therefore, essential to understanding and interpreting the 

NIGC's FOIA process. We note that under FOIA, agencies are given the discretion to develop their 

own definitions of "record," and that most agencies, including the U.S. Department of the Interior,[3] 

have adopted specific definitions of "record" in their FOIA procedures. 

We believe the NIGC's current definition of "record" in 25 C.F .R. § 517.3(h) appropriately describes 

the scope of materials accessible via a FOIA request to the NIGC. We, therefore, urge the NIGC to 

retain the existing definition of "record" in order to ensure that the final rule properly defines the scope 

of information that will be subject to the FOIA processes contained therein. 

Page 11 
In closing, we would like to thank you for this opportunity to share our views and comments on the 

proposed changes reflected in the Proposed Rule for Part 517. We respectfully seek your favorable 

consideration of our comments and ask that you carefully consider our views and concerns as you 

move through the rulemaking process. 

Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can provide any additional information. 

Tribal Chairman 

[l] Freedom oflnformation Act Procedures, 82 Fed. Reg. 48205 (Oct. 17, 2017). 

[2] Freedom oflnformation Act Procedures, 71 Fed. Reg. 20006 (Apr. 19, 2006). 

[3] 43 C.F.R. § 2.70 (2016). 

Page 12 
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