House Rules Committee News

The Gulf States Shipbuilders Consortium (GSSC) announced that its fall meeting will be held October 18-19, at the Holiday Inn in Mobile’s historic district. Highlights of the meeting include a presentation by U.S. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-Fairhope). Byrne will deliver an Update from Washington at the official meeting kick-off at the recently opened GulfQuest Maritime Museum on Oct. 18. Byrne is a member of the prestigious House Rules Committee, Committee on Armed Services, and Committee on Education and the Workforce and is a member of the Congressional Shipbuilding Caucus.

A big push for deeper water at Jacksonville's port has fallen short in the U.S. House of Representatives as the House Rules Committee voted against allowing the full House to consider an amendment offered by U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, that would have authorized a future 47-foot ship channel in Jacksonville, reports 'The Florida Times-Union' online. The rejection means when the full House begins debate soon on the Water Resources Development Act, there will be no chance of adding the deepened ship channel to the massive bill.

Legislation introduced by Sen. Robert Molaro (D-Cook) provides if any riverboat gaming licenses are issued for Chicago or Cook County, they could go only to the county or municipal governing board. The governing board would then conduct an auction and grant the opportunity to manage the riverboat gaming operation to the highest qualified bidder. Senate Bill 1193 is intended to ensure if there are going to be riverboat casinos in Cook County, they are city- or county-owned so virtually all of the revenue generated by the gaming operations goes to the city or county. Additionally, House Bill 276, legislation to authorize the opening of an unspecified number of additional riverboat casinos, was returned to the House Rules Committee from the House Executive Committee.