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 The House Financial Services committee has announced which five witnesses will be present to make testimony during today's hearing. The panel will include UB.com sponsored pro and reigning National Heads-Up Poker Champion Annie Duke, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Discovery Federal Credit Union Ed Williams, Commerce Casino Vice Chairman and Director of Strategic Planning Tom Malkasian, Mohegan Tribe's Lynn Malerba and Law Enforcement and Anti-Terrorism Consultant Michael Fagan.
Duke will speak on behalf of the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), a 1.2 million member lobbying group for the casino industry. Her testimony which was published on the House Financial Services Committee's website earlier today and reads in part, "At its most basic level, the issue before this committee is personal freedom - the right of individual Americans to do what they want in the privacy of their homes without the intrusion of the government." She then went on to say, "To be clear, HR 2267 is not a bill that expands internet gambling in America. It simply provides the appropriate government safeguards to an industry that currently exists and continues to grow."
No representatives from the United States Treasury or Federal Reserve will be present at today's hearing. Back in December the House Financial Services Committee held a similar hearing, and Bachus called for Treasury and Federal Reserve officials to be present at a follow-up hearing. Apparently this is not that hearing. No markup of HR 2267 will take place either leaving some to question what exactly is meant to be accomplished by the hearing.
Poker fans can catch the proceedings live via a web cast on the official website of the House Financial Services Committee in any case. Internet gambling is the only topic on the docket for the Committee today. The meeting is expected to run one to two hours.
If HR 2267 is not acted upon by the end of the year, it will be deemed "dead" and will have to be reintroduced to the new Congress in January. Congress will take a recess August 9th through September 10th and the bill's target adjournment date is October 8th, one month ahead of November's general elections. The bill was introduced in May 2009 and has attracted 69 co-sponsors, both Democrat and Republican.
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