If you glanced at the House Judiciary Committee schedule for Wednesday, July 30th, you would have seen that HR 2140, the Internet Gambling Study Act, was scheduled to be marked up. It was one of a dozen bills to be considered as part of a 10:15am ET hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building. However, “A resolution and report finding Karl Rove in contempt for failure to appear pursuant to subpoena and recommending to the House of Representatives that Mr. Rove be cited for contempt of Congress” took center stage, making national headlines and forcing discussion of several bills on the docket to be postponed.
The timing could not have been worse for Congresswoman Shelley Berkley, the sponsor of HR 2140. With the United States Congress slated to adjourn for the entire month of August and an election on the horizon in November, time may be running out for several critical bills to see debate on the House floor. The Internet Gambling Study Act is up against many other pressing matters in the House Judiciary Committee, including Thursday’s discussions of animal cruelty and “state secrets.”
Berkley’s Press Secretary, David Cherry, discussed the shrinking window of opportunity: “The problem that we’re going to have is that we have a limited calendar because of the election season. It’s even looking possible that Congress will adjourn for the year in October.” Frequently, the governing body of the United States returns for a “lame duck” session after the general elections have concluded. Indications are that the lame duck session may not occur in 2008.
Yesterday’s Judiciary Committee hearing centered on whether President George W. Bush’s former political advisor, Karl Rove, should be held in contempt of Congress. The eventual vote, after a large amount of debate, was 20-14 for what the Boston Globe newspaper called “defying its subpoena to testify in an inquiry into improper political meddling in the department.” The debate in Committee lasted longer than expected, leaving bills scheduled for mark-up in the same hearing out in the cold.
Cherry comments on yesterday’s proceedings: “The Chairman of the Committee schedules all markups. You can see how the Karl Rove issue pushed aside other legislation. If the Karl Rove debate didn’t take that long, we would have been able to mark it up. Congresswoman Berkley is already in discussions with the Chairman and other co-sponsors about trying to get it re-scheduled.” The earliest opportunity for discussion on the bill is in September.
HR 2140 was introduced on May 3, 2007. It currently has 73 co-sponsors, including the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, John Conyers. Congressmen Barney Frank and Robert Wexler, each of whom has authored his own internet gambling legislation, are both co-sponsors. Others include Pete Sessions, Luis Gutierrez, and Michael Honda. The majority of co-sponsors signed on when the bill was first introduced. In fact, just five have come onboard since the beginning of 2008.
According to its text, the bill calls for a “detailed examination by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences of the issues posed by the continued spread and growth of interstate commerce with respect to Internet gambling, as well as the impact of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act on Internet gambling in the United States.” Issues of money laundering, underage gambling, and compulsive gambling are also studied. The findings of the bill must be submitted to the President, members of Congress, Governors of all 50 states, and Native American tribal governments within one year.
The ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee is Lamar Smith. An e-mail and phone call placed to Smith’s Press Secretary, Kim Smith, seeking comment on HR 2140 were not returned at press time.
