Before the United States Senate reconvenes next week to sink its teeth into the American Values Agenda, Rep. James Leach, R-Iowa and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. have scheduled what they are calling a field hearing for Thursday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to discuss legislative efforts to curb Internet gambling.
"It is not a hearing of any particular committee," a Washington source close to the situation explained. "It is more of a press conference, but with some of the trappings of a formal congressional proceeding."
According to the source, the hearing was put together in about three days' time. He said Frist's staff began to research the idea on Monday night.
"The hearing has no substantive effect on the legislative process," the source said. "However, it will probably serve to strengthen Frist's commitment to advancing the bill, and that is a bit worrisome."
"Frist is doing this because he wants to run for president in 2008," he explained. "And Iowa, with its first-in-the-nation party caucuses, plays an outsized role in helping to pick the nominees of each party. Frist is guessing that this will buy him some goodwill with social conservatives in Iowa. . . . Leach is doing this, obviously, because he wants Frist to push his bill through the Senate."
A merging of bills authored by Leach and Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virg., the Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act (HR 4411), passed the House of Representatives on July 11 with a vote of 317-93, but the bill received no attention in the Senate, which entered its summer recess on Aug. 5.
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. has introduced companion legislation to H.R. 4411, both of which seek to eliminate Internet gambling in the United States by making it unlawful to use credit cards, checks, or fund transfers to settle online wagers.
Leach is boasting support for the legislation from the likes of the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, plus a spectrum of family and church organizations as well as 48 of the 50 state attorneys general.
The list of witnesses scheduled to appear at the impromptu hearing includes Merton Hanks, former defensive back for the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks and current senior manager of football operations at the NFL headquarters; Mark Vander Linden, director of the Iowa Department of Health's Gambling Treatment Program; and Iowa Deputy Attorney General for Litigation Jeff Peterzalek.
Leach and Frist have also invited representatives from religious communities that have been affected by gambling.
The gambling industry will not go unrepresented. Michael Bolcerek, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), said his group has notified all Iowa-based PPA members of the hearing, and he was booked for a red-eye flight last night to Cedar Rapids.
The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 pm at the Clark Alumni House on the Coe College campus in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.