Rulemaking Hearing Scheduled for Today

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law is holding a hearing entitled, "Midnight Rule Making: Shedding Some Light".  Online poker players should pay attention, one of the first items to be addressed is HR 34, the Midnight Rule Act which has the potential to undo the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). 

The bill, sponsored by Democratic Congressman of New York Jerrold Nadler, was introduced January 6th and was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.  Today’s hearings got under way at 11am EST from Room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building.  The first panel consists of Nadler only but the second panel includes industry experts including:

Gary Bass, Executive Director, OMB Watch

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Chairman, Waterkeeper Alliance

Lynn Rhinehart, Associate General Counsel, AFL-CIO

Veronique De Rugy, Ph.D, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Michael Abramowicz, George Washington University Law School

Curtis Copeland, Ph.D, Specialist in American National Government, Government and Finance Division, Congressional Research Service

The hearing will be discussing a possible fix to midnight rulemaking which is the term given to last minute regulations passed by an outgoing administration.  The UIGEA was officially enacted on January 19th, 2009 as part of the midnight rulemaking by the outgoing Bush administration.  The UIGEA regulations call for banks and other financial institutions to comply by December.  HR 34 states that the bill is designed “to delay the implementation of agency rules adopted within the final 90 days of the final term a President serves.” If HR 34