Of course the Commission will also be traveling, with members entitled to full reimbursement. It will have a staff. It will probably pay witnesses for travel, it will pay for transcripts, etc. Obviously millions of dollars will be spent by the federal government on this enterprise. And it will be millions of dollars spent primarily to investigate matters that are now wholly within the jurisdiction of the states.
State lotteries are one of the issues covered here.
Another set of issues deals with legalized gambling through casinos, slot machines, etc., in the states. Part of what the Commission will investigate has to do with Indian gaming, but the larger part will be an investigation of whether or not state and local governments have acted wisely in allowing private citizens to gamble with their own money in gambling establishments run by other private citizens. I am surprised to find that my Republican colleagues think this is an appropriate use of federal money at a time of emphasis on balancing the budget. In summary, not only does this authorize an expenditure of scarce federal dollars on matters primarily within the jurisdiction of the states, but the thrust of the legislation clearly reflects a view that the states have chosen unwisely by allowing their private citizens to spend too much of their own funds on gambling. The notion that the federal government should rebuke the states for allowing private citizens to gamble with their own money in privately run gambling enterprises seems to me to be the antithesis of a respect both for the rights of states and for individual choices about how they should spend their own money.