Opinion: Attach IGREA or Wexler bill to appropriations bills next week

[dougmanct]

It seems to me the next week in Congress is prime-time for all legislation that doesn't rise to stardom in the hearts and minds of the MSM. Appropriations bills to fund government are due, and you can safely bet tons of riders and attachments are going to get in.

It is nice to see the long lists of legislators sponsoring and/or supporting the pro-poker bills currently in committee. But I think in a situation where must-pass legislation is going to be coming through town, and most definately will not be debated or inspected to any real level of detail vis-a-vis riders/attachments, that NOW is the time for those supportive legislators to back up their support with action. I reckon it's only going to take one brave legislator from the House and Senate to attach, say, the Wexler bill to the Appropriations bills to likely ensure its passage. I would think that legislator has a LOT more to gain than to lose by doing this:

1) If Bush follows through with his promise to veto everything, noone is going to pay attention to one of likely tons of riders or who introduced it; there will be no bandwidth for anti-poker proponents to make political hay over the attempt.

2) If Bush does NOT veto, the legislator(s) who attached the bill will, I have to think, get FAR more positive feedback (and contributions) from our side than fallout from the opposing side - if for any other reason than that the only form of media that really seems to have paid much attention to the poker legislation issues have been the Internet, and in that form of media, progressive thinkers seem to far outnumber those who like to live by fundamentalist religious belief systems.

I seem to think this would be a REALLY good time to aggressively lobby the most sympathetic legislators to our cause to step up over the next set of days and be the hero - some may say that there is a moral/hypocrisy issue with voicing disgust with how UIGEA came to pass, and then using exactly the same tactics to neutralize it as applies to poker - but I say - be a realist - waiting for fairness or some sense of true decency or ethics to take hold in government is the same as agreeing to just give up the fight - since said fantasy will not happen in our lifetime. We have a window to legislatively fight fire with fire.

This is my humble opinion, well reasoned responses pointing out flaws in this thinking are encouraged.

[Berge20]

The House has already passed all of its appropriations bills, so your effort would have to be in the Senate.

The rules generally preclude legislating on an appropriations bill, so the best you could do (within the rules) would be specifically block funding for implementing the regulations.

[Legislurker]

ANYTHING that passes will come in Conference Committee hard up against a break. Don't look until the current session ends, and theres some HUGE WTO judgement looming. I hope the PPA or SOMEONE has a bill crafted thats WTO compliant and saves some face for Kyl et al. No pending legislation fits the WTO at all. Unless somehow they decided to characterize sports handicapping as a skill game as well as poker. Then Ill spend what br i got left on hookers n blow.

[SSIGI HR2046]

The Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative which endorses the Frank bill is not only a solution to the WTO dispute but will also generate substantial Taxes. It is crafted to provide 3 main elements, Consumer Protection, Tax generation and a solution to the WTO situation.

[Jay Cohen]

[ QUOTE ]
The Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative which endorses the Frank bill is not only a solution to the WTO dispute but will also generate substantial Taxes. It is crafted to provide 3 main elements, Consumer Protection, Tax generation and a solution to the WTO situation.

[/ QUOTE ]

The Frank bill does NOT bring the US into compliance with the WTO decision. If anything, it takes the US further out of compliance.

If you are from Safe and Secure, please stop spreading incorrect information.

[mbpoker]

Frank's bill might not be exactly in literal compliance with the WTO ruling, but it does comply with its spirit - which is to give equal access to domestic and to foreign companies.

[KEW]

[ QUOTE ]
Frank's bill might not be exactly in literal compliance with the WTO ruling, but it does comply with its spirit - which is to give equal access to domestic and to foreign companies.

[/ QUOTE ]

This would not be true if/when individual states opt out and/or/WHEN the Major Sports(NFL,MLB,NBA and NCAA) ALL opt out..

[MiltonFriedman]

WHY allow a private company, like the NFL, to monopolize gaming or invoke federal legal penalties for behavior.

The Frank Bill's 'opt-out" is incredibly bad precedent.

Who the hell elected the Board of the NFL that they should have a power to criminalize private citizens' behavior or, more likely, provide only approved outlets, like fantasy football, for a fee.

If they get FREE news coverage of their scores, then those are available for the public to use. Hey, let them control their intellectual property, but do not give them legislative powers over people who are not even their customers.

[Grisgra]

We've got a Democratic congress who doesn't have the balls to try to stop a war that gave them a clean sweep in 2006, and that 70% of the country doesn't want. (Note that you can be a Repub and fully support the war and still agree with the gist of this statement -- i.e., the Dems are pussies.)

Due to this sad fact, I remain skeptical that they are going to squeeze anything even vaguely controversial into any bill in the near future.

[JPFisher55]

[ QUOTE ]
We've got a Democratic congress who doesn't have the balls to try to stop a war that gave them a clean sweep in 2006, and that 70% of the country doesn't want. (Note that you can be a Repub and fully support the war and still agree with the gist of this statement -- i.e., the Dems are pussies.)

Due to this sad fact, I remain skeptical that they are going to squeeze anything even vaguely controversial into any bill in the near future.

[/ QUOTE ]

I completely agree and I am an ex-Republican who does not support the war or the Democrats. However, real WTO sanctions will threaten the Dems biggest contributors, i.e. Hollywood and the entertainment industry. That could cause the Dems to act and attach something to a must pass bill.
After all the Dems care more about money than the stopping funding for the war.