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Obama Would Sign Short-Term Spending Bill To Avoid Shutdown

Obama Would Sign Short-Term Spending Bill To Avoid Shutdown

By John T. Bennett, CQ-Roll Call (TNS)

WASHINGTON — The White House is signaling it would not block a short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown should lawmakers need to keep working on a massive spending measure after the Dec. 11 deadline.

That date is when an existing government-wide continuing resolution will expire. By 11:59 p.m. Eastern that day, Congress must pass an omnibus spending measure crafted to higher spending limits in a budget deal already signed into law, or send President Barack Obama another short-term measure. The alternative is a government shutdown just weeks before Christmas.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, briefing reporters in Paris Monday, put the onus on Republican leaders to avoid a shutdown.

He said White House officials “take some solace in” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s past statements about opposing more government shutdowns. Earnest also repeated a line he has used in recent months, saying he doubts Speaker Paul D. Ryan wants to preside over a shutdown so early in his new job.

Earnest said Obama would not sign a long-term continuing resolution. The White House has for most of the year pushed for increased domestic spending, an objective it secured in the recent bipartisan budget deal.

However, Earnest said the president would put his signature on a short-term CR should lawmakers need another few days to complete a year-end budget bill.

Earlier Monday, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters lawmakers might need to pass a one-week CR that would give them until Dec. 18 to complete work on the omnibus measure, which would include higher defense and domestic spending levels.

©2015 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Photo: White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington September 3, 2015. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Texas Representative Hoping To Legalize Online Poker With Bill

Texas Representative Hoping To Legalize Online Poker With Bill

By Anna M. Tinsley, Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TNS)

U.S. Rep. Joe Barton is ready to ante up again.

Barton, who has supported legalizing online poker for years, plans to file a bill to do so in the next month or so.

“It’s very ironic that Texas hold ’em poker is played everywhere legally except in Texas,” said Barton (R-Ennis), whose district includes parts of Arlington. “But one of these days that will change.”

The issue of legalizing online poker or online gambling is getting an early start in the 114th congressional session, after a hearing last week on a bill that would do the opposite of what Barton wants.

Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), has proposed a bill that would eliminate all types of online gambling.

“Putting an app on every phone that allows people to gamble wherever they are is not a good idea,” Chaffetz has told reporters, adding that this is an “important moral argument.”

Big money is backing Chaffetz’s bill, which he also filed last session. Billionaire casino owner and major political donor Sheldon Adelson, along with other online gambling opponents, wants to see gambling only in brick-and-mortar casinos.

The dueling bills promise a high-stakes fight, with a more than two billion dollar online poker industry hanging in the balance that could last for months or years.

Barton predicts that the cards will fall his way, someday: “Folks who think they can stand in a pulpit and tell people how to run their lives and tell states how to run their businesses don’t see the same Constitution I do.”
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WHY IT’S ON THE TABLE

People already play poker online. But most online gamblers are using offshore websites that aren’t subject to U.S. law.

That means winnings can’t be taxed and games can’t be regulated to make sure they are fair and accurate.

The issue of online gambling is up in the air — and before Congress — because of a 2011 Justice Department ruling regarding the Wire Act of 1961, which restricts betting over telecommunication systems that cross state or national borders.

In a departure from previous rulings, the department said the act applies only to sports betting.

Since that ruling, Delaware, New Jersey, and Nevada have moved forward with laws to legalize websites offering casino-type games including poker, blackjack, and slot machines.

Some states also used the Justice Department ruling as legal grounds to start selling lottery tickets online.
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DIFFERENT PROPOSALS

Barton said his bill would do much the same as others he has filed. It would legalize online poker and give each state an opportunity to decide whether to allow online gaming.

“It’s poker only,” he said. “It doesn’t apply to the lottery or any other games of chance.”

He said his bill would set up protections to make sure children can’t gamble. Any player would have to use a debit card, not a credit card. And a regulatory agency would monitor and set limits on anyone who might seem to be spiraling out of control.

“The fear that someone will lose their house or run up credit card debt, that’s not going to happen,” Barton said.

On the other hand, Chaffetz has filed the Restoration of America’s Wire Act, aimed at restoring the original interpretation of the act and preventing online gambling.

“Congress has the responsibility to debate these regulations openly and should not allow bureaucrats to unilaterally change the law behind closed doors,” he has said. “Until that debate takes place, Congress must restore the long-standing interpretation of the Wire Act.”

Last year, attorneys general in 16 states including Texas asked Congress to restore the previous interpretation of the act. And governors in Texas and South Carolina have written to Congress expressing concern about the Justice Department decision.

Not everyone is buying into the argument.

Representative Ted Poe (R-Houston), said he is concerned that a ban on online poker could create a black market for gaming.

And Representative John Conyers (D-MI), worries that it could infringe on states rights. “States should be allowed to decide this question for themselves, and we should not take any action that would overturn such state laws,” he said.
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MIXED OPINIONS

Many in the poker industry are backing Barton and say they hope Chaffetz’s bill will go away.

“This bill should die today so members of the committee can focus on more pressing matters, and not on legislation that will deny states the ability to protect its citizens,” said John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance.

Alliance officials said Chaffetz’s bill would strip states of their rights under the 10th Amendment, which says that powers belong to the states unless the Constitution specifically grants them to the federal government.

“If an unelected billionaire is granted the power to rewrite history by imposing a federal prohibition, the future is bleak for every American who values their Internet freedom,” Pappas said.

Opponents of the bill disagree.

Some worry that online gambling could be a way to launder money. Others worry that children could get hooked on gambling if they could access it through an adult’s computer, tablet, or smartphone.

Adelson has vowed to “spend whatever it takes” to end online gambling.

An Arlington-based organization also opposes it. “It’s hard to imagine anything more destructive than the prospect of turning every living room or dorm room in America into a poker table,” said Rodger Weems, chairman of the Arlington-based Stop Predatory Gambling Texas group. “This proposal would feed the obsession of the five to seven percent of gamblers who become addicted.

“It’s also impossible to keep underage gamblers from playing. Any kid with a credit card (his own or his parents’) will be able to gamble,” he said. “Representative Barton’s proposal is a recipe for certain disaster, and we will continue to fight to see that his bill never becomes law.”
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WHAT’S LEGAL?

Many gamblers are already online, playing for free or for money using offshore websites that aren’t subject to U.S. law. Since those sites aren’t governed by the U.S., winnings can’t be taxed and games can’t be regulated to make sure they are fair and accurate.

Texans can legally play poker in person at a friend’s home, for instance. They can play for money, in any amount. But the “house” can’t claim any of the pot or any money.

U.S. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Ennis), said it is past time for more forms of poker to become legal in Texas.

“I go to Oklahoma about every three or four months to play poker,” he said. “I have yet to sit at a poker table at Winstar with someone who is not from Texas. And most times they are from the DFW area.”

Photo: TZA via Flickr

NSA Surveillance Bill Defeated In Senate

NSA Surveillance Bill Defeated In Senate

By Timothy M. Phelps, Tribune Washington Bureau (TNS)

WASHINGTON — Legislation to keep most Americans’ phone records out of government hands was defeated in the Senate on Tuesday, dooming at least for now prospects of national security reforms that supporters said would protect the privacy of law-abiding citizens.

A motion failed to get the necessary 60 votes needed to cut off debate on the bill sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., with most Republicans voting against. The final vote was 58 in favor to 42 against.

One of its most outspoken foes was incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who said stopping the National Security Agency from collecting telephone dialing records “would end one of our nation’s critical capabilities to gather significant intelligence on terrorist threats.”

Citing the recent beheadings of U.S. citizens in Syria, McConnell said, “This is the worst possible time to be tying our hands behind our backs.”

Born of whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations that the NSA was secretly archiving data from virtually every telephone call made in the United States, the Leahy bill, dubbed the USA Freedom Act, would have required the NSA to request such records from telephone companies rather than collect and store the information itself.

Except in emergencies, U.S. intelligence agencies and the FBI would have had to seek approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to access and use the data, and only in cases involving suspected terrorism or espionage. A similar procedure is used now to access the NSA database, but critics say that current system is open to abuse.

“The bill contains key reforms to safeguard Americans’ privacy by prohibiting the indiscriminate collection of their data,” Leahy argued. “It also provides for greater accountability and transparency of the government’s surveillance programs.”

At issue are telephone company records of customers and the phone numbers they have dialed, including date, time and duration of calls, but not the conversations themselves.

Privacy advocates vowed to keep fighting to limit government access to telephone records. Some key provisions of the USA Patriot Act _ the post 9-11 law that authorized collection of the phone records — expire in June, when the congressional fight over privacy is likely to resume.

After Republicans take control of the Senate in January, it will be difficult to make changes as broad as those proposed by Leahy. But House Republicans have been more favorable to privacy concerns, and advocates hope they will continue to push.

Republican opposition came from both sides of the debate. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who is expected to seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, voted against the bill because he said it did not do enough to protect individuals’ privacy.

But former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and former Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, who both served under President George W. Bush, wrote in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal that Leahy’s bill was “exquisitely crafted to hobble the gathering of electronic intelligence.”

After the House passed a weaker version in May, Leahy organized negotiations that brought together the intelligence agencies and civil liberties groups. They produced a compromise bill in July that had the support of the Obama administration and technology companies.

After the defeat, Leahy vowed to try again. “This lifelong Vermonter will not give up the fight,” he said. He went on to castigate opponents who he said “went at this issue by fomenting fear and doing it at the last minute.”

With his voice rising in emotion, Leahy recalled that someone had died from touching mail addressed to him in the anthrax-laced letter attacks of 2001. But the constitution is worth more than the life of one person or one senator, he said.

“This is more than one senator, more than one person. This is the Constitution of the U.S. and if we do not protect our Constitution we do not protect our country,” Leahy said.

Photo via Talk Radio News Service/Flickr

Competing Sides Gear Up As Obama Pledges Action On Immigration

Competing Sides Gear Up As Obama Pledges Action On Immigration

By Jayna Omaye, Orlando Sentinel (TNS)

ORLANDO, Fla. — As the immigration debate heats up in Washington, several Central Florida groups are banding together to push President Barack Obama to follow through on his pledge to take executive action to save millions from deportation.

Obama said he would focus on easing certain restrictions on undocumented immigrants, drawing strong opposition from Republican congressional leaders who warned doing so would “poison the well” and hinder further legislation.

The local groups seeking movement on immigration, including the Florida Immigrant Coalition and Mi Familia Vota, hope to secure a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 825,000 undocumented immigrants in Florida and the nearly 11.7 million in the U.S.

“It is not a matter of politics. It’s a matter of humanity,” said Jose Luis Marantes, state director of Mi Familia Vota, a national nonprofit with state offices in Orlando, Poinciana and Tampa that promotes social and economic justice in the Latino community. “Immigrants are interconnected within every part of our economy, our system and our families.”

Marantes added that the group hopes reform policies will “cover a broader set of folks” so immigrant families would not be separated.

In Lady Lake, a Lake County town of about 14,250, a 16-year-old boy named Diego and his mother, both undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. in 2001, are among those who could feel the effect if Obama uses his executive powers to address the divisive issue.

The teen, who was diagnosed with epilepsy and autism, recently underwent brain surgery to alleviate weekly seizures including compulsive attacks that cause him to lose control of his body and drop to the floor. His family and doctor said the teen wouldn’t have received the same level of medical care if Diego, who is covered under a state-run insurance plan for kids, were in Mexico.

“I’m scared. I don’t want to be deported,” Diego’s 39-year-old mother, who didn’t want to be identified or use her son’s last name out of fear of deportation, said through a translator.

While Diego is eligible for a green card issued to certain undocumented minors, the future remains unclear for his mother. Immigration reform could have a major impact to countless others in Florida, where about 19 percent of the state’s population is foreign born, census figures show. In Central Florida, the numbers are highest in Osceola at 20 percent and Orange at 19 percent.

Last year, a bipartisan group of eight senators, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., unveiled an immigration bill that would combine improvements to border security with a conditional pathway to citizenship. While the then-Democrat-controlled Senate approved the sweeping bill, the measure became mired in conservative backlash and the Republican-led House has not voted on it yet.

Republican U.S. Rep. John Mica, who represents parts of Orange, Seminole, and Volusia counties, said he wouldn’t support reform that “attempts to reward an illegal act” by granting a pathway to citizenship, according to a statement on his website. He said policies should center on improving border protection and immigration enforcement.

But Democratic U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson backs action by Obama.

“You leave the president with no choice but to try to go ahead and address the problem,” said Grayson, who represents Osceola and parts of Orange and Polk. “These are human beings and they deserve consideration like anybody else.”

Marantes said undocumented immigrants are “in the shadows” and are always threatened with deportation.

“The fear is real,” he said. “All it takes is one wrong turn and before you know it, they’re shipped to an immigration center and deported.”

But some critics say undocumented immigrants put a burden on local and national economies and argue that states, including Florida, need to stop offering immigrants incentives to come and stay illegally. For example, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill in June that allowed children of undocumented immigrants to pay in-state college tuition.

“We understand and empathize with the aspiration of people who want to come here,” said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a national nonprofit that seeks to improve border security and halt illegal immigration. “It (a pathway to citizenship) would basically be like ringing the dinner bell. The inevitable response is that people around the world would take this as a signal to come.”

Last year, deportations hit 438,412, an increase of 13 percent from 2011, according to Pew Research. While the number of deported immigrants with criminal convictions has stalled, the number of immigrants without past criminal backgrounds has increased, Pew found.

In Diego’s case, his family says remaining in the country is vital because sending him back to Mexico would “honestly mean death” for the teen, who attends a special-needs school in Leesburg.

“He’s not the worst we’ve ever seen but his seizures were not doing very well,” said Diego’s neurologist, Dr. John Kevill of the Florida Epilepsy Center in Orlando. “It’s pretty severe.”

Kevill said Diego probably wouldn’t have had access to the same type of brain surgery in Mexico, where epilepsy and psychiatric care are not “anything close” to the treatment Diego underwent in Orlando.

To allow the teen to stay in Florida legally, his legal guardian, Alba Alonso, a U.S. citizen and fellow Lady Lake resident, is working with Groveland attorney Bridgette Bennett to secure a green card. Alonso, 44, became the teen’s guardian because his mother didn’t understand how to care for the teen by herself.

“When you come to a foreign country, you can’t do it by yourself,” said Alonso, a single mother of two who home schools her son who struggles with learning disabilities. “His life depends on him staying here. We all deserve a chance at freedom. … Humanity has no boundaries.”

Bennett, who is fluent in Spanish and English, said the portion of the law she’s trying to tap into is not widely used — only 3,434 undocumented immigrants last year were granted the special status, which allows minors to legally remain in the U.S. while applying for permanent residency.

“We are not going through this process just to get Diego ‘papers,’ ” said Bennett, who added that she handles two to four of these types of cases per year. “Every day someone is here without documentation they are at risk.”

AFP Photo/Christophe Archambault

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