Senate Will Try to Sneak Through Massive Spending Bill By Week’s End

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s online poker bill is not dead in the water yet.  Most pet projects (pork, earmarks, whatever you wish to call them) are likely to latch onto a massive omnibus spending bill like parasites. 

From RedState.com:

Later this week, Senate appropriators are reportedly trying to sneak through a massive new Omnibus spending bill.  They are planning on offering an Omnibus Spending bill as a complete substitute for the Continuing Resolution, a bill to fund the federal government at 2010 levels with some changes.  The Omnibus Spending bill was secretly negotiated between House Democrat Appropriators and some Senate Republican Appropriators as a last ditch effort to pass some earmarks and increase spending for fiscal year 2011.

Reid, a Nevada Democrat, decided against adding his measure to a compromise tax-cut package amid concerns it would undermine the tax bill’s prospects for passage, Bloomberg News reported last week.

Online poker legislation, which would bring in billions of added revenue to local state and federal government coffers, seems like a sensible add-on to the spending bill.

Still, there is plenty of unrelated pork that is sure to raise some eyebrows, especially among Republicans.  The Democrats have already reportedly added a ban on Gitmo detainee transfers to the bill.

- Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher