Archive for the ‘Harry Reid’ Category

Popular legislation designed to prevent congressional insider trading has been idling for weeks as strange political dynamics complicate Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) decision on a path forward.

Moving the STOCK Act wasn’t supposed to be complicated, but differences over a key section of the bill on political intelligence have created unusual political alliances and left supporters waiting anxiously for Reid to act.

iowntheworld.com

The FAA deal would allow the Senate to approve a House bill extending the FAA’s operating authority through mid-September, including a provision that eliminates $16.5 million in air service subsidies to 13 rural communities. Passage of the bill is expected Friday. Senators have scattered for their August recess, but the measure can be approved if leaders from both parties agree to adopt it by “unanimous consent.”

Republicans had insisted on the subsidy cuts as their price for restoring the FAA to full operation. But the cuts may become moot.

The bill includes language that gives Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood the authority to continue subsidized service to the 13 communities if he decides it’s necessary.

“Only LaHood can decide how he will use his waiver authority,” said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Reid.

But Democrats said they expect the administration to effectively waive or negate the cuts.

“I just know that the White House has provided assurances that they (the communities) will be held harmless,” said a Senate Democratic leadership aide who asked not to be named because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the deal.

The shutdown began when much of Washington was transfixed by the stalemate over raising the government’s debt ceiling. The house bill was on Dingy Harry’s desk all the time. During that time, the FAA furloughed 4,000 workers but kept air traffic controllers and most safety inspectors on the job. Forty airport safety inspectors worked without pay, picking up their own travel expenses. Some 24,000 workers on construction-related jobs on airport projects from Palm Springs, Calif., to New York City were idled as the FAA couldn’t pay for the work.

 

“President Obama and the Liberals in Congress want to shutdown the government so they can continue to spend YOUR money while blaming Republicans.  It’s long past time for Obama and the Democrats to stop playing political games and, instead, get busy working with Republicans to solve America’s economic problems.

Congressman Broun on HR1255 and the Government Shutdown

More on the Shutdown

America is facing unprecedented fiscal catastrophe.

President Obama and Liberal Democrats in Congress are directly responsible for mind-boggling levels of federal spending and debt. This fiscal insanity has destroyed millions of jobs and is destroying the American economy.

Even so, President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and their allies are aggressively obstructing those of us who are trying to save the nation from economic ruin.

President Obama and Harry Reid seem to have adopted a political strategy to preserve “business-as-usual in Washington” – refuse to work with Republicans to reduce spending, force a government shutdown AND blame the shutdown on Republicans!

We must send a message to those on the Left.  First and foremost, manipulating a government shutdown for political advantage, instead of confronting our spending crisis is simply unacceptable. To those, like the President, who think running more than a 9 TRILLION dollar deficit over the next decade is “making cuts” – it’s time to get serious. And to those – like Harry Reid – who want to stay at the trough of taxpayer’s money with ridiculous pork such as funding cowboy poetry festivals – We the People will no longer stand for this!

Please share this with your family and friends through email and social media. We must make our voices heard and heard clearly!

 

By MARIN COGAN & JONATHAN ALLEN | 3/30/11 12:19 PM EDT

Freshmen House members are taking a hard line against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the politics of passing a temporary spending bill—with one freshman vowing not to settle for a “split the baby strategy” on spending cuts.

“The biggest barrier between the American people and a government of less spending, less borrowing, and less debt is Harry Reid and the Democrats in the Senate,” said Martha Roby, a freshman Republican from Alabama, noting the controversial policy riders in the bill that would defund Planned Parenthood and scale back the EPA.

“The Senate Democrats are ducking it all. They want to frame the debate as one within the Republican caucus but the American people are not buying it. The fight is between Republicans in Washington who want to cut spending and democrats who want to defend it,” Roby said.

“We will not settle for a ‘split the baby strategy,’ and it is time for the Democrats to respond,” she said, declining later to say whether any compromise was possible.

The comments of the freshmen, coming a day before tea party protests at the Capitol, increases the pressure not only on Reid, but on House Speaker John Boehner. Boehner goes unnamed in their complaints, but he is the one caught between cutting a deal with Senate Democrats to keep the government running and satisfy the tea party wing of his conference.

The freshmen met for a press conference outside the Capitol Wednesday morning organized by Rep. Rick Crawford. Crawford and his colleagues delivered a letter to Reid imploring him to make “reasonable, responsible spending cuts”— and promising to protest daily until he does.

“Mr. Reid, your record on spending in the Senate is one of failure,” says the letter, written by Arkansas Rep. Rick Crawford, a former radio broadcaster. “You have failed to pass a budget, failed to restrain spending, and failed to put our country on sound fiscal footing. We do not accept your failure as our own. The American people did not send us here to fail.

That’s not to say freshman Republicans won’t move off their hard line — just that they prefer not to give ground easily.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), who represents Fort Leonard Wood, said the Senate’s decision not to pass a counterproposal amounted to a “dereliction of duty” by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “He’s threatening a federal shutdown,” Hartzler said. “That’s not our plan, our plan is to lead and we have led. It’s time for him now to in good faith move forward with what needs to be done to cut spending, to pass a cr so we can get into talking about a 2012 budget, which is what we’re supposed to be doing.”

Other Republican freshmen said this is one of many attempts in coming days to push the Senate on a continuing resolution, including a Tea Party rally held at the Capitol tomorrow.

“The American people sent us into the Congress of the United States to do the peoples’ job, and we have done it,” Texas Rep. Quico Canseco said.

 

“We’re here to implore the Senate to do something. If they’ve got enough time to go and pass bills like the March 11 national or international plumbing day, then they can certainly look at our continuing resolution,” Canseco said.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/52222.html#ixzz1IASJiqss

POSTED BY G.M.HELLER AT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 01, 2011

McLean, VA — U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) may never go grocery shopping for his wife again.
While shopping this past Saturday afternoon amongst the food aisles at his local gourmet grocer in McLean, Virginia, Sen. Reid came across a fellow shopper who recognized him and asked a question that the senior senator from Nevada plainly did not want to answer.
The private citizen acknowledged upfront to the U.S. Senate’s most powerful Democrat that he was a Republican and wanted to know from Mr. Reid himself why the Majority Leader was refusing to allow the just-passed House bill to repeal ObamaCare to come to the floor of the U.S. Senate for a vote.
Mr. Reid, walking beside the store’s imported bottled condiments, responded to his questioner that he was focused on his shopping right now and did not wish to discuss the matter.
Mr. Reid’s Republican antagonist was not to be put off and persisted in his questioning.
Leader Reid, who by now was perusing the store’s extensive cheese selection, refused to say anything further.
Unfazed by the stony silence emanating from the Majority Leader — and apparently not at all bothered by the unamused look on the face of the plainclothes Capitol Police officer shadowing the Majority Leader — the persistent questioner was not yet ready to withdraw.
In a store crowded this busy Saturday afternoon with shoppers from tony McLean and surrounding Fairfax County, where the federal government-fueled economy makes per capita income and spending here amongst the highest in the nation, people know this gourmet grocery for its line of Prime, Natural, and Kobe-style beef, excellent wine list, fine cheeses and other high-end delicacies.
Amongst all this recession chic, Mr. Reid’s Republican interrogator decided now was the time to go public.
In a voice that could be heard on the other side of this medium-sized food emporium, the shopper with ObamaCare Repeal on his mind — no shrinking violet he — loudly declared to his fellow gourmands (many in lines waiting to check-out) that indeed the graying personage standing right there amongst them was none other than “U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid,” and, pointing directly at Mr. Reid, said, “This man is personally holding-up the ObamaCare Repeal bill by refusing to allow it to be brought to the floor of the U.S. Senate for a vote,” and which law if left on the books “can eventually bankrupt the United States of America.”
From the check-out area came applause, apparently at the spectacle.
The stony — now red — faced Sen. Reid, appearing both annoyed and mortified at being the focus of this unexpected public scolding in the midst of what was to be a quiet moment spent Saturday shopping, tried not to be noticed — hard to do when one is waiting in a check-out line with someone just a few feet away loudly gesticulating and pointing.
Exiting the establishment as soon as practical, Sen. Reid, with more of his security detail now in evidence, hopped aboard one of two waiting black SUV’s.
The mini-convoy pulled away from the curb and out of the parking lot, out of reach, for now, of interaction with pesky opinionated partisans.

The Wall Street Journal

 JANUARY 21, 2011 By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL

The White House co-opts GOP talking points—will House Republicans take advantage of their newly won recourse?

Come one, come all, to witness President Barack Obama’s Great Leap Rightward. Come, as well, to witness the GOP response.

Mr. Obama has a new mission this year—to make the country believe in political reincarnations. The man who presided over one of the most liberal, most expensive, most government-centric agendas in modern history? It would appear he was kidnapped over Christmas break and replaced by one who is fiscally responsible, a cheerleader for capitalism, and a skeptic of government. It can happen, you know.

As shape-shifting masters like Bill Clinton or Tony Blair might attest, the goal of any move to the center is always two-fold. The first is to lull the public into forgetting past transgressions, and to present them instead with a politician in tune with the pulse of the nation. The second goal—just as important—is to co-opt the other side’s message.

After its midterm victory, the new House leadership crafted a playbook that Majority Leader Eric Cantor unveiled in a briefing in the first days of January. Week one the Republicans would devote to repealing ObamaCare. Week two would focus on the party’s plans to roll back discretionary spending to 2008 levels. Week three would laser in on the president’s job-killing regulatory blowout.

The White House was listening and has been hustling to get ahead of the GOP message machine. Nowhere was this more obvious than in the president’s Tuesday op-ed on this editorial page announcing an executive order to restore “balance” to federal regulation and root out rules that hurt economic growth. It was a largely symbolic move, designed to counteract the public perception that Mr. Obama is antibusiness, and to bolster corporate America’s support.

That, and to beat the GOP to it. When Mr. Cantor or Speaker John Boehner (who are behind a week in their schedule because of the Tucson shootings) finally do focus on regulatory excess, Mr. Obama will respond: “I agree regulations can hurt the economy. So much so that I just signed an executive order . . .”

The exact strategy will be on display in the president’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. Next week is GOP Cut-Spending Week, though the Tucson delay means it will now be the president who commands the network cameras. And Mr. Obama will smartly use the hour to highlight his own supposed commitment to fiscal responsibility, to muddy the waters, and to again suggest that any differences between his team and Republicans are minor policy disputes, not a philosophical divide.

Count on Mr. Obama also to use his speech to address his health law. This is tougher for the White House. Republicans have a clear repeal message. The White House approach so far is to argue both sides should work together to find ways to “improve” the law, that repeal is a waste of time, and that the only thing standing in the way of finding common ground will be opportunistic GOP politicking.

Republicans figured that all this might be coming, and the serious ones are, if anything, hopeful about it. Far better, they note, to have a president who may be open to helping the economy than one who isn’t. The great unknown is whether Mr. Obama means any of this, or if it is entirely rhetorical. President Clinton’s own movement, after all, was only successful because he was serious enough about it to craft bipartisan victories like welfare reform.

The Republican opportunity now shifts to finding out. In two years in office, Mr. Obama has proven adept at saying one thing while doing another. The difference now is that control of the House allows the GOP to point out the distinctions. A broad complaint—say, that Mr. Obama is “pro-regulation”—may not work. But the GOP does have the ability to send, week after week, clear pieces of legislation to the Senate that will challenge Mr. Obama to back up his rhetoric with action.

A first example: Republicans are unveiling a bill to prohibit taxpayer-funded abortions. Mr. Obama claims to believe in this; last year he signed an executive order that in theory backs the ban. The GOP legislation would codify the prohibition. Will the president demand the Senate take a vote? The president may be hoping that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will shield him from some of these legislative challenges. But Republicans intend to make Mr. Reid’s intransigence a daily issue and in the process put Mr. Obama on the spot.

The White House is making new promises. For its own sake, it had better mean some of them. The president skated through the first part of his term with Washington in awe. Circumstances have changed. The administration may be shrewdly co-opting GOP talking points, but the GOP today has recourse. And it could be that a president who claims to be something he isn’t is as much a problem for voters as a president with a misguided agenda.

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid is dismissing the tea party as short-lived, saying it will “disappear” once the economy gets better.

The Nevada Democrat prevailed last November in a tough re-election race against tea party-backed candidate Sharron Angle.

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that’s set to air Sunday, Reid was asked if he believes the tea party will be a lasting political force.

Reid says the tea party movement emerged because of the country’s economic problems. But he says the tea party will no longer exist when the economy improves — and he says the economy is getting better every day.

We will show him that he is terribly missinformed.

The nation’s unemployment rate stands at 9.8 percent, a post–World War II record 19th month that unemployment has been over 9 percent. President Barack Obama is the largest tax hike in American history. So what do Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–CA) have Congress voting on today? Amnesty. Specifically, the House and Senate will be voting on the fourth and fifth versions of the DREAM Act, which would legalize anywhere between 300,000 and 2.1 million illegal immigrants.

Supporters of the DREAM Act claim the bill would provide citizenship only to children who go to college or join the military. But all any version of the legislation requires is that an applicant attend any college for just two years. And if President Obama wants to reward non-citizen service members with citizenship, he already has the power to do so. The Secretary of Defense already has the authority under 10 U.S.C. § 504 (b) to enlist illegal immigrants in the military if “such enlistment is vital to the national interest,” and 8 U.S.C. § 1440 allows such immigrants to become naturalized U.S. citizens, with their applications handled at accelerated rates. The military component of the DREAM Act is a complete red herring.

Neither of these bills has gone through their respective committees, and only one has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office. As a result, they are chock full of loopholes designed by open border advocates to make an even wider amnesty possible.

One bill would even grant Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano the power to waive the college and military requirements if the illegal immigrant can demonstrate “compelling circumstances” and the immigrant’s removal would cause a hardship to the them, their spouse, their parents, or their children. When exactly would removal from this country not cause a hardship? What other loopholes are in these bills? As Speaker Pelosi might say: “You have to pass this amnesty so that you can find out what is in it.”

The DREAM Acts are also an invitation for fraud. All of the bills would make it illegal for any information in an amnesty application to be used to initiate removal proceedings against an applicant. Law enforcement agencies would be forced to prove that any information they used to find, detain, and try to remove an illegal immigrant was already in their files before an application was received or was not derived from the application. If an illegal immigrant lies about his age to qualify for the program, and the lie is never detected, he gets amnesty. And if the lie is found out, no worries—law enforcement is forbidden from using that lie against him.

The real goal of the DREAM Act is to make it even harder for our nation’s law enforcement agencies to enforce any immigration laws. And Congress is not the only forum where amnesty advocates are working to undermine the rule of law today. Right across the street from the Capitol, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments over an Arizona immigration enforcement law. This is not a hearing on the controversial SB 1070 law that passed earlier this year. This case, supported by the usual amnesty suspects (La Raza, the SEIU, the Chamber of Commerce, etc.), challenges Arizona’s 2007 E-Verify law, which penalizes employers who do not verify the legal status of their employees. This challenge by amnesty advocates to even common-sense immigration enforcement measures should send a clear measure to anyone wavering on the DREAM Act: Any enforcement mechanisms that DREAM Act supporters agree to today will be immediately challenged in court tomorrow. Enforcement is fickle; amnesty is forever.

Our country does need immigration reform. We need smarter border security, stronger interior enforcement, and a more efficient naturalization system. But amnesty plans like the DREAM Act undermine real reform. The DREAM Act encourages people to ignore our borders, undermines our law enforcement across the country, and makes fools of law-abiding immigrants who play by the rules.

The Senate’s Secret Santa Agenda

Today the Labor Department released its monthly jobs report, which showed that the U.S. economy added an anemic 39,000 jobs this month and that the nation’s unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent. That marks the 19th month in a row that the unemployment has been over 9 percent, a post–World War II record.

So how is this lame duck Congress, a Congress that was thoroughly rejected at the polls just last month, greeting this news? By raising taxes on the American people by $700 billion. Is this what the American people want? Not at all. According to Gallup, only 31 percent of Americans believe the best approach for dealing with the economy is raising taxes. The vast majority of Americans (62 percent) believe that the best way to fix the economy is either through deficit reduction (39 percent) or lower taxes (23 percent). But neither of those items is on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D–NV) agenda.

So what legislative gifts is Reid planning on giving the American people this Christmas? No one knows for sure, but Reid’s wish list is long.

New START. Just this week we learned not only that Russia has moved tactical nuclear weapons closer to our NATO European allies but also that the State Department has been negotiating with Russia on missile defense “cooperation.” This after claiming for months that New START in no way limited our missile defense options. But before the ink was even dry on the treaty, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that “linkage to missile defense is clearly spelled out in the accord and is legally binding.” The Heritage Foundation has identified at least five sections of the treaty that limit missile defense. If the Administration has nothing to hide on this issue, then it should have no problem releasing the treaty negotiation records to confirm what U.S. negotiators were saying about missile defense.

Higher Spending. Last night the Senate approved a continuing resolution (CR) that will keep the government running through December 18. The Senate could easily pass a CR that would fund the government at current levels through early next year, but that is not want the left wants. A short CR would allow the next Congress to reduce discretionary spending to 2008 levels, thus saving the American taxpayers $100 billion in new debt. But the left wants an omnibus spending bill that will allow them to increase discretionary spending and deliver earmarks to their constituents.

Higher Taxes. Lost in the debate over personal income tax rates are the slew of other taxes set to rise on January 1. Taxes on dividends, capital gains, and estates are just some of the higher tax rates Americans will face under President Obama’s tax plan. The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis has estimated the impacts of the Obama tax hikes and found they would (1) decrease inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) by $1.1 trillion by 2020; (2) decrease business investment by $33 billion a year; (3) decrease personal savings by $38 billion in 2011 alone; (4) decrease consumer spending by $706 billion through 2020; and (5) kill an average of 693,000 jobs a year through 2020.

Higher Energy Prices. The left is still desperate to appease its environmentalist base, so Reid has also promised a vote on nationwide renewable electricity standards (RES), too. Mandated renewable electricity necessarily costs more than traditional electricity, because otherwise a mandate would not be necessary to force people to use it. And what would these higher energy prices do to the economy? A Heritage Foundation analysis of 22.5 percent RES by 2025 found that (1) household electricity prices would jump 36 percent; (2) industry prices would rise by 60 percent; (3) national income (GDP) would be cut by $5.2 trillion between 2012 and 2035; and most importantly (4) RES would kill more than 1 million jobs.

Amnesty. No leftist wish list would be complete without legislation providing amnesty to illegal immigrants. This week Reid introduced yet another version of the DREAM Act, which would provide amnesty to any illegal alien who attended any college for just two years. None of these amnesty proposals has been reviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and none of them has been scored by the Congressional Budget Office. Reid is clearly a firm believer in the Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–CA) maxim: You have to vote for the bill to find out what is in it.

This would be an ambitious leftist wish list any time of the year, but cramming it all into four weeks—just one month after the American people thoroughly rejected the left’s agenda at the polls—is particularly audacious. The only way Reid can get all this done before the next Congress is sworn in is to repeat the exact same backroom deals he used to get Obamacare passed last Christmas Eve. The American people can expect to see more Cornhusker Kickbacks, Louisiana Purchases, Gator Aids, and Cash for Clotures.

Reid should stop playing Santa now and listen to his colleague from Nebraska, Sen. Ben Nelson: “Most of the [legislation] being dealt with right now should be held over until 2011, because we should be focused on jobs, taxes, and debt reduction. … I think we can hold off on START; I don’t want it to crowd out taxes, debt reduction, and jobs.” With unemployment at 9.8% the American people have received enough surprise gifts from this Democratic Congress.

Two plans aimed at extending the Bush tax cuts for low and middle income workers failed in the Senate on Saturday.  The plans were put forward by Democrats as a way to paint Republicans as the party of the rich.

CBS News reported earlier:

“For a proposal to extend all expiring tax cuts on individuals with incomes of less than $200,000 a year and married couples making less than $250,000, the vote was 53-36.

“On a plan to renew tax cuts for all filers with incomes of less than $1 million, the vote was 53-37″

Both measures required a 60 vote margin to break a GOP filibuster.

CBS News Capitol Hill correspondent Bob Fuss said “…Democrats want to make a political point: Republicans are so determined to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy, they’ll block them for everyone else.”

But Republicans argue that with unemployment now at 9.8 percent, extending the tax cuts are necessary to stimulate job growth.

Speaking from the floor of the Senate, Mitch McConnell said:

“According to the strange the logic of Democratic leaders in Congress, the best way to show middle class Americans that they care about creating jobs is to slam some of America’s top job creators with a massive tax hike…Today’s vote was an affront to the millions of Americans who are struggling to find work and a clear signal that Democrats in Congress still haven’t got the message from the November elections.”

Some Democrats, however, feel that unemployment checks are more beneficial to the economy than extending tax cuts to the businesses that create jobs.

In a bit of Orwellian Newspeak, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said:

What does it do to create jobs? What does it do to reduce the deficit? Unemployment insurance, the economists tell us, return $2 for every $1 that is put out there for unemployment insurance. People need the money they spend it immediately, for necessities. It injects demand into the economy; it creates jobs to help reduce the deficit.

Giving 700 billion dollars to the wealthiest people in America, does add 700 billion dollars to the deficit. And the record in history shows it does not create jobs, it does not create jobs.

By this logic, one could argue that if 9.8 percent unemployment is good, then 98 percent would be ten times better for the economy.

But many Americans have a different view.  A Rasmussen poll shows that nearly half disagree with Speaker Pelosi’s assessment.

A CBS poll of just over 800 people shows that most do not want tax cuts for those making over $250,000, but a Rasmussen poll shows most expect tax cuts will continue for everyone.

Democrats, however, appear tone-deaf to the message sent by voters in November.

Americans do not want more government spending, nor do they want never-ending unemployment checks.

But as Democrats continue to demagogue the issue, Republicans like newly sworn Mark Kirk of Illinios are standing firm.

Delivering the Republican address, Kirk said voters in the midterm elections demonstrated their distaste for any tax increases.

“The current leaders of Congress should not move forward with plans that were just rejected by the American people,” he said. “These leaders should not raise taxes and risk another recession. Instead, Congress should reduce spending and prevent another tax hike on American taxpayers.”

Related:

Tax cuts for the rich

The political class versus the electorate

The ‘party of no’ is really the party of freedom

John Boehner blasts Democrats stunt on tax vote

McConnell agrees to ban earmarks

Harry Reid is pushing behind the scenes for lame-duck legislation that would allow poker games over the Internet but restrict initial licenses to casinos and racetrack operators that have been in businesses at least five years.

Some of the biggest casino operators in Reid’s home state of Nevada are eager to get a piece of the online gambling industry, which generates an estimated $5 billion a year for offshore operators.

A congressional aide familiar with the issue said Reid aides were circulating the draft legislation, and a copy of it was obtained by The Associated Press. The aide was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and did so only on condition of anonymity.

Four years ago, Congress effectively banned online gambling, passing legislation that prohibits banks and credit card companies from making payments to gambling websites. Supporters of online poker face less opposition with Democrats in charge of both chambers for another month. The House Financial Services Committee this year approved a bill that established a regulatory structure for online gambling.

Reid’s office would not answer questions about the legislation.

But sensing that supporters are in a hurry to lift the ban, three leading Republicans in the House wrote to Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., this week to say they oppose any attempt to legalize Internet gambling during the current legislative session.

They said using online gaming to generate revenue for the federal government would bring social and economic harm to many families.

“Congress should not take advantage of the young, the weak and the vulnerable in the name of new revenues to cover more government spending,” Republican Reps. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, Dave Camp of Michigan and Lamar Smith of Texas said in the letter. Bachus is in line to become chairman of the Financial Services Committee next month, Camp will take over the Ways and Means Committee and Smith is expected to head the Judiciary Committee. The three committees have jurisdiction over Internet gambling matters.

Most of the legislative work this year concerning online gambling has taken place in the House, where supporters say that prohibition didn’t work with alcohol and it’s not working with online gambling. People continue to participate but in an underground, unregulated market.

“We are not talking about an activity that harms others where we properly step in,” Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the current Financial Services chairman, said at a hearing this year. “We are talking about a decision by adults to do what they want with their own money.”

Under the draft legislation circulated to various Senate offices, states and Indian tribes would oversee regulation of the online poker license-holders.

Casino companies were among Reid’s biggest campaign donors in the last election. MGM Resorts International, through its employees and political action committee, donated $192,000 to his campaign, the most of any single company, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Meanwhile, employees and the PAC at Harrah’s Entertainment chipped in an additional $83,100. Harrah’s recently changed its name to Caesars Entertainment Corp.

Poker’s popularity has soared in recent years, with casinos around the country regularly sponsoring poker tournaments, some of which are shown on television. The winner of this year’s World Series of Poker in Las Vegas won nearly $9 million. The tournament featured more than 7,300 players willing to pay a $10,000 entry fee.

With online poker, players generally deposit money into an account through their credit card. They join a table with other players following along on their computer. A software program deals cards to each participant. And when it’s time to bet, the program automatically prompts a player to bet, hold or fold. The program also keeps a running tab of how many chips a player accumulates or lose. When players have finished their game, they click on a cashier tab that shows how much a player’s account has increased or decreased.

He is doing this in the lame duck secessions where more important items should be discussed. This is a Slimball move by Reid.