The Hartford Courant - Transit Left Out Of Port Measure
Transit Left Out Of Port Measure
Instead GOP Limits Internet Gambling
October 5, 2006
By DAVID LIGHTMAN, Washington Bureau Chief
WASHINGTON -- As Congress headed for a long pre-election recess last week, Republican leaders refused to add money for rail and transit protection to a major port security bill: It was just too important to be cluttered with extraneous amendments, they said.
So backers of the rail and transit money, including Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., were angry and upset when leaders decided it was OK to insert a limit on Internet gambling in the bill.
For months, Lieberman and other urban lawmakers had pushed hard to include $400 million for mass transit, notably buses, subways and commuter rail, and another $400 million for longer-distance passenger rail and freight, including Amtrak. Connecticut could have used the money to beef up security on commuter rail lines around the state.
But White House and congressional leaders were eager for a strong port security measure to pass before the Nov. 7 election - and including rail and transit would be a distraction and perhaps hurt the bill's chances.
Yet top GOP officials added the Internet gambling provision, largely at the urging of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., as well as Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who had been pushing the legislation for 11 years and this fall faces a tough re-election fight.
Frist's press office would not publicly discuss the tactics, instead issuing a statement explaining why he wanted the provision so badly:
"Gambling is a serious addiction that undermines the family, dashes dreams, and frays the fabric of society," Frist said. Democrats were left frustrated. "History tells us that rail and mass transit in America is a target," said Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., top Democrat on the House Committee on Homeland Security. "The Transportation Security Administration's failure to address this known vulnerability is beyond me."
Lieberman, top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, was on the House-Senate conference committee charged with writing the bill, and was ready to push legislation passed by the Senate last month as part of the port bill providing $4.6 billion over three years strictly for rail and transit security.
The House version of the port bill had nothing for rail or transit, but the negotiations among members of Congress consisted largely of members reading statements - "a sham conference process," Thompson said.
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