A Congressional organization of Republican social conservatives called the Values Action Team circulated a letter Thursday urging Republican leadership in both chambers of Congress to attach Internet gambling prohibition legislation to an appropriations bill.
Addressed to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R-Il., Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the letter urges the Republican leaders to include Internet gambling legislation in an appropriations bill "so that senators adverse to such a measure are less able to stop this important legislation from passing the Senate and making it to the President's desk."
The letter continues, "In the last 10 years, legislation to enforce laws against illegal Internet gambling has passed the House twice and the Senate twice, but it has never surmounted underhanded dealings to finally reach the President's desk."
The letter also cites the concerns of a 1999 National Gambling Impact Study Commission and explains that the proliferation of a lucrative international gambling industry undermines federal anti-gambling laws and leads to the false perception that Internet gambling is legal. It mentions both Rep. Bob Goodlatte's, R-Va., HR 4777, the "Internet Gambling Prohibition Act," and Rep. James Leach's, R-Iowa, HR 4411, the "Unlawful Internet Gambling Prohibition Act," stating that both bills "assert the government's authority to enforce the laws needed to deter and prosecute illegal Internet gambling."
The Values Action Team is the product of a summit attended by Republican social conservatives in 1998, at which Tom DeLay, who was then Majority Whip, emphasized a lack of coordination between the outside pro-life/pro-family coalitions and similar-minded Members of Congress. DeLay, who now faces charges for violations of campaign finance laws and conspiracy to violate election laws, recently stepped down from his post as House Majority Leader and announced that he would not seek re-election in 2006.
DeLay appointed Rep. Josheph Pitts, R-Penn., to lead the coalition of Republican social conservatives, which became known as the Values Action Team. The primary goals of the group are to unite its conservative Republican Members of Congress with pro-family coalitions by establishing legislative goals, identifying key tasks for its members and coalitions to perform, and executing action items that would lead to conservative victories. Some of the key issues on which the Values Action Team takes conservative social stances are pro-family tax bills, life (abortion, assisted suicide, embryonic stem cell research), education, parental rights, pornography (urging the prosecution of obscenity by the DOJ), and religious liberty (defending the 10 commandments).
Values Action Team members are required to be strongly pro-life and to assign one legislative staff member to attend weekly strategy luncheons. They are also asked to follow through with action items such as lobbying Congressmen and signing letters.
Click here to view the text of the Values Action Team's letter.