“If at first you don’t succeed, then rewrite your bill, incite constituents to anger at your own party’s leadership during an election year, and try, try again.” This is the lesson that Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) has learned. He is preparing to run his revised Internet Gambling Prohibition Act (H.R. 3125) through the House. Closed-door negotiations are ongoing in order to determine exactly what day this measure will be brought to a vote.
How did this happen? Isn’t this the same bill that failed to get a two-thirds vote (required under arcane House procedures) earlier this year and was afterwards blocked by the House leadership from coming to the floor a second time? Yes, and no.
It is unclear whether Goodlatte will remove the provisions that would require ISPs to monitor their users’ activities or those which allow exceptions for certain types of gambling, such as jai alai, dog racing and horse racing. If he has not removed these provisions, then both some Representatives, who were concerned about unnecessarily regulating the Internet, and social conservatives, who believe that all online gambling should be outlawed, will not be pleased.
Moreover, in another move that may garner disapproval and will certainly invite controversy, Goodlatte has added a provision that would require credit card companies and other financial institutions to monitor their customer’s purchases and prevent them from using credit cards, money orders, or checks to gamble online.
Goodlatte seems to have borrowed this language from another new bill, the Internet Gambling Funding Prohibition Act (H.R. 4419). This legislation was introduced by Jim Leach (R-IA), chairman of the House Banking Committee and also author of the “Know Your Customer” rules, against which there was such a backlash last year. Although Leach’s bill will probably not be brought up for a vote this session, Goodlatte’s bill would carry some of its most harmful provisions into law, if passed.
Goodlatte’s revised version has a greater chance of passage than his original bill in that it will only require a simple majority to pass, although under a closed rule it cannot be amended further. However, many in the House seem intent on giving Goodlatte the red light. One group of House Democrats led by John Conyers (D-MI) has circulated a letter urging that the bill be returned to committee and a revised version brought to the floor. Rep. Conyers may be advising this course in the hopes that his own bill, H.R. 5020, will be passed first. (Conyers’ bill would abolish all online gambling, but has no real enforcement mechanism.)
How did Goodlatte’s bill gain precedence again in such a short period of time? Well, John Kyl, whose Senate bill prohibiting online gambling has already passed, and Bob Goodlatte, undaunted by the unpopularity of the measure, publicly attacked the Republican leadership for not supporting the bill. This caused social conservatives to take up arms against the House leadership. The leadership caved; it is, after all, an election year.
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