What:
Markup of H.R. 2267, Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act (the Barney Frank bill for licensing and regulation of online gambling)

Where:
The House Financial Services Committee, chaired by Rep. Frank

When:
10:00 am, Wednesday, July 28, 2010

A "markup" is the process of a Congressional committee hearing and voting on amendments to a proposed bill that is before that committee. The markup is usually concluded by a vote of the committee on the amended bill. If passed, the bill is moved forward to either another committee (that will also need to pass it, possibly amending it as well) or to the full floor for debate and vote.

The bill that emerges after committee markup is a pretty good indication of the general final form of the bill, but amendments can still be made in other committee markups (if any) and during the full floor debate.

If the bill gets passed by a vote of the full floor of one chamber of the Congress (the House of Representatives in the case of this bill), it then gets sent to the other chamber (the Senate). The bill, or a companion bill, then goes through the same process in the other chamber including committee markup & vote (although this step could be skipped), full floor debate and vote.

If the bill that emerges (with a passing vote) from the Senate differs from the bill that was sent to them from the House, then the changed bill either goes back to the House for another full floor vote for passage, or goes to a reconciliation committee consisting of members from both houses to develop a compromise bill, which then needs another full floor vote in both chambers for passage.

Once the bill receives a final passage from both chambers, it goes to the President for signing to become law.

After becoming law, in the case of this bill there will be a period for development of the regulations by the Treasury. This will take some months to complete, possibly even running over to a year or more depending on the complexities and requirements of the bill. Once the final regulations have been set, it will take some time for implementation before the sites get licensed - submitting applications, background checks, etc.

Currently, there is nothing in the bill which specifically forbids sites from operating in the US during the period between the bill becoming law and an applicant site receiving a license. The Menendez bill in the Senate does specifically grant permission for any site that submits an application to operate until the application is either approved or denied.

The deadline for passage of the current Barney Frank bill (and the Menendez bill) is the end of this year. If the bill is not passed into law by then, the process will have to be started over with introduction of a new bill in the new session of Congress, which starts in January.

Some links:

The House Financial Services Committee

The video broadcast feed for today's markup.

If the feed link above doesn't work for you, try opening your media player and putting in the URL:
http://financialserv.edgeboss.net/wmedia-live/financialserv/16489/300_financialserv-qwertyuiop_070131.asx

If that doesn't work, the broadcast should be running live on the PPA web site:
http://theppa.org/special/hr2267-3/

PDF of H.R. 2267, Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act

Contact your House Representive on the House Financial Services Committee. (Fill out the form at this link to see if your rep is on the committee.)

Good job PX at explaining the process. For those who want a visual picture of what the above looks like here's a post from Grasshopp3r in another thread.

px thanks for all the work you do in this forum.

What would be an "average" time-frame for a bill of this nature to move forward to senate after committee passage?

I guess how much time do we think between Committee-->Senate--->Oval Office???

If I'm reading correctly all of this could complete by Christmas??

It's more like Committee-->House floor--->Senate Committee-->Senate floor--->Back to House (or Reconciliation)-->House (& Senate) floor-->Oval Office.

If it gets done this Congressional session with the current bill(s), it will be by Christmas. Otherwise, the process will have to start over from the beginning next year with a new bill.

Appreciate the summary of the process - can PPA indicate whether they think that if this bill passes the House, it would need to go through markup in Senate as well, since that would seem to be one of the huge time sinks of the process?

Thank you px. What I would like to know is the success rate of bills that get past a house floor vote. I would imagine it's pretty high. Also, do you envision lots of markups in the Senate??

That is a pretty cool picture highlighting the process. Here is a link for a bigger picture so you can actually read it: http://www.mikewirthart.com/wp-conte...madeWIRTH2.jpg

Any of the links working yet for anyone?

+1

Awesome new thread for this topic.

The video link works. It's just a PowerPoint slide show right now.

with a black screen?

Markup hearing is live, try VLC if WMP doesn't work.

it's starting now

If that's Bauchus (I think that's how it's spelled), hearing him talk is ridiculous. >_>