WASHINGTON — Advocates of state control of gambling enterprises are lining up against supporters of tribal interests over legislation to undo a Supreme Court ruling that went against the Narragansett Indians last winter.

Several powerful senators have joined Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., the chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, in sponsoring the five-paragraph bill, which would make it easier for tribes to secure a special federal status that puts acquired land beyond the reach of state and local laws and taxes.

William Thompson, a gambling expert at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas who advocates Dorgan’s amendment, said it would “give a consistency to the treatment of tribes” in the complex arena of federal trusts for property acquired outside tribal lands. Thompson said the measure would also make it easier for tribes around the country to establish gambling enterprises.

If Dorgan puts the bill to a committee vote, “passage is a foregone conclusion,” according to Barry Piatt, Dorgan’s spokesman on Indian affairs. Committee action would send the bill to the full Senate for possible consideration.

All the same, the prospects for enactment of the Dorgan bill are uncertain because — like the Supreme Court decision that it attempts to reverse — it is national in scope. The Dorgan bill may therefore attract powerful opposition from members of a number of congressional delegations besides Rhode Island’s. There is not yet a companion bill in the House.

Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, D- Nev., has not taken a position on Dorgan’s bill specifically, but he has been a strong opponent of using a mechanism at the heart of the Rhode Island case — federal land trust — to create gambling casinos outside the boundaries of Indian reservations.

“Harry Reid is the majority leader. If he wants to use his influence, maybe he can keep the Dorgan bill from being voted on,” said Thompson of UNLV.

The Rev. Richard McGowan, a gambling-law expert at Boston College, said Dorgan’s measure raises a dilemma for congressional Democrats. As a group, “Democrats raise a lot of money from Native Americans. The Obama administration, moreover, appears to be distinctly more sympathetic to tribal concerns than its predecessor. But the substantial popular opposition to expanded casino gambling in some states — including Rhode Island and Massachusetts — will make it difficult for the majority party to go against the local concerns for colleagues, McGowan said.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Narragansetts do not qualify for the land-trust status created by a 1934 law because they were not a federally recognized tribe until 1983. Eight years later, they bought 31 acres for housing near their tribal land. In 1998, the Interior Department agreed to take that property into trust. The state sued to block the action, launching the legal battle that ended with the Carcieri decision.

Matthew Thomas, chief sachem of the Narragansetts, welcomed Dorgan’s bill, saying it would permit “our land to go into trust for purposes of housing.” But Thomas would not renounce any future possibility of establishing a gambling enterprise on the land at issue in the case. “Why should we say anything such as that” when opponents of the tribe “haven’t kept their word on things they’ve said” over the years? Thomas said.

“My concern continues to be gambling” and the right of Rhode Islanders under the state’s Constitution to decide in referendum whether to approve the establishment of gambling casinos, said Sen. Jack Reed. The Rhode Island Democrat said his staff have expressed that concern to Dorgan’s staff.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. James R. Langevin, both Rhode Island Democrats who oppose any expansion of casino gambling in the state, said they have yet to review the Dorgan bill.

Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, who has downplayed the chances that Congress would act to reverse the Supreme Court’s ruling, said “nothing has really changed” in the months since Congress began to review the Rhode Island decision, handed down last February.

“There’s no way I see a land deal like this getting done,” the Rhode Island Democrat said, “until the entire congressional delegation and the people of Rhode Island agree.”

Governor Carcieri’s spokeswoman, Amy Kempe, said the governor’s legal staff is closely watching the Dorgan bill. “We’re very concerned about it, and we will share our concerns with the congressional delegation.”

Similarly, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, who defended the state’s position in the lawsuit that gave rise to the position, is conferring with the state congressional delegation, said spokesman Mike Healey.

Joseph S. Larisa, a lawyer long associated with state and local efforts to oppose the taking of the Narrragansett land into trust, said the Dorgan measure was an attempt to “undo the work that the state and the town [of Charlestown] have done over the past decade to make sure that all Rhode Island businesses are treated equally” under local and state law.

He said that if Dorgan’s measure were to become law, “the door would be open a crack” to the gambling enterprise that he believes the tribe would ultimately seek. But if the tribe did seek to create a gambling business, it would still have to clear several difficult hurdles, he said.

jmulligan@belo-dc.com