Opposing the Unconstitutional Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOODEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the unconstitutional Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA). During the 117th Congress, I filed an amendment to the omnibus spending bill to strip language from the bill that had been intended to ``fix'' the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, which was found unconstitutional by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on November 18, 2022, because Congress had unlawfully delegated its lawmaking power to a private corporation called the ``Authority''. The Appeals Court said the Authority needed more oversight from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), but the language included in the omnibus had been hastily put together and failed to address the underlying issue raised by the Appeals Court. The so-called ``fix'' still did not allow the FTC to make policy decisions. The FTC still may only reject rules proposed by the Authority if they are inconsistent with the Act, but the Act is written so broadly that no rule will ever be rejected. After the rules have gone into effect, the FTC may now issue its own rules, but it still may do so only to make them consistent with the Act. It cannot impose its own policy decisions on the Authority's rules. Unfortunately, my amendment did not receive a vote in this era of governing by omnibus, but I will be working this Congress to pass legislation through regular order that will fix the constitutional problems with HISA.

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