Sunday, October 01, 2006

House and Senate negotiators reached agreement last night on legislation to
tighten maritime and port security regulations and, in a last-minute move,
added an unrelated measure that seeks to ban Internet gambling. At the same
time, House negotiators prevailed in their fight to strip out $4.5 billion
in rail and mass-transit security funds included in the Senate provision.
The port security and Internet gambling legislation was approved 409 to 2 in
the House and on a voice vote in the Senate early today, as lawmakers rushed
to leave Washington for their fall reelection campaigns. Senate Republican
and Democratic leaders announced it would be passed by voice vote after the
House's late-night vote. Lawmakers from both parties had been crafting the
port security measure for more than a year, but its passage became
politically critical after a Middle Eastern government-owned company's
purchase of U.S. port operations triggered a political melee in Washington
early this year. The final agreement requires radiation scanning of all
containers at the top 22 U.S. seaports, orders the Department of Homeland
Security to develop response and recovery plans for a terrorist attack, and
sets firm deadlines for the implementation of a transportation worker
identification and screening system. It authorizes $2 billion in port
security grants between 2001 and 2011. The changes angered some Democrats,
who helped craft the original port security legislation but were largely
blocked from the final negotiations. The Senate had overwhelmingly approved
the authorization of $3.5 billion for mass-transit security grants and $1
billion for freight and passenger rail programs, but House Republicans
balked at the cost.

Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), whose home-state casinos are
split over the Internet gambling measure, briefly weighed scuttling the bill
over the provision before agreeing to go along, aides said.

House and Senate Republican leaders pushed hard to secure the Internet
gambling measure, which some Republicans viewed as a chance to clear their
names after they allowed disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff to scuttle a
similar measure six years ago.

Proponents of the crackdown said the industry, which is mostly based
overseas, provides a front for money laundering, some of it by drug sellers
and terrorist groups, while preying on children and gambling addicts.
Americans bet an estimated $6 billion per year online, accounting for half
the worldwide market, according to analysis by the Congressional Research
Service.

A coalition of on-line poker players and gambling Web sites tried to thwart
the Internet gambling provision. Michael Bolcerek, president of the Poker
Players Alliance, argued that it could put familiar Web sites such as Party
Poker and Pacific Poker out of business while pushing gamblers to "rogue Web
sites with no protection for children and no protection for problem
gamblers."