It's a busy time for NTRA President and CEO Tom Rooney as there are some important issues facing horse racing that are being addressed in the nation's capital. Most notably, is the provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill that allows gamblers to deduct only 90 percent of their losses from their winnings. If nothing is done to change that, it will likely have a serious impact on the sport and drive many big bettors out of the game.Bills have been introduced that would allow gamblers to again write off 100 percent of their losses. One is the FAIR BET Act and the other is the WAGER Act. Rooney is the chief lobbyist for the racing industry in Washington, D.C. and is doing his best to get one bill or the other passed. To talk about the latest on the bills and his efforts to rescind what all gamblers consider an unfair tax, Rooney joined this week's TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland. He was the Gainesway Guest of the Week.Rooney admitted that with so much else going on in Washington these days, it's hard to get lawmakers to focus in what is a low-priority issue.“The WAGER Act and the FAIR BET Act have been a priority for our office,” he said. “We have gone up and down the halls of Congress to explain to a lot of members what the issue is. I don't think it's unfair to them. They did not know that it was in the Big Beautiful Bill. Sometimes there is an effort to find dollars, to find money somewhere in an effort to show that this bill is being paid for in some way. It is most likely a staffer on one of the committees saw this as a means to get money for the Big Beautiful Bill, and what better way to do this than target people who are engaged in a gambling activity? So, the short-sightedness of this is that you probably are looking at about a billion dollars in pay. But what's going to end up happening is that gamblers are probably going to end up taking their business elsewhere or greatly reduce their activity. So, the unintended consequence of this effort to gain revenue by the government is that they're probably going to end up losing even more because the people who bet at that level aren't going to continue to bet at that level or they're going to go somewhere else. So you're really going to lose more.”Rooney doubted that a stand-alone bill would ever progress through the system and get passed. He believes the best way to get one of the acts passed it to make it part of a bigger, comprehensive bill.“Sometimes, when you're kind of below the radar like this, if there is a bill, one that must pass and something that is going to get to the President's desk, we can attach either the FAIR Bet Act or the WAGER Act onto it, whether it be a continuing resolution, whether it be a debt limit vote, or whether it be some kind of a bigger bill where people are putting different ornaments on the Christmas tree. They always like to avoid those, but it does happen.”Gamblers are incredulous that they may be subject to a situation where they may have to pay taxes on their gambling activity when they did not make any profits. While that seems completely unfair, Rooney said there are some elements in the House and Senate that simply don't like gambling.“There are members of Congress and the Senate who believe that gambling is a sin, and their whole mantra about politics is piety. They believe that this is a tax essentially on sin.”Another major issue for racing is the effort to get the Save America's Forgotten Equines Act (SAFE Act) passed. It calls for outlawing horses from being shipped to Mexico and Canada for the purpose of slaughter. If passed, it undoubtedly would make it harder for “killer” buyers to cash in on sending horses to a slaughterhouse. The bill has been in limbo for years, and Rooney said the biggest impediment to its passage is resistance from lawmakers representing western states where cattlemen have a big influence.“It's a hot button issue, especially when it comes to Western Republicans who, in a way, look at horses as livestock in the way that they would look at cattle or pork,” he said. “For them to agree that there's a difference for equines is not easy. They feel like it's a slippery slope to beef cattle. And so, they have been hard and fast and opposed to the SAFE Act because they don't want the next shoe to drop and for that to be beef.”The “Fastest Horse of the Week” was the Louisiana-bred sensation Touchuponastar (Star Guitar), who earned a 106 Beyer when winning the GII New Orleans Classic for the second straight year while setting a Fair Grounds track record. The Fastest Horse of the Week segment is sponsored by WinStar, which stands the sire Two Phil's.Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the PHBA, 1/ST TV, the KTOB and West Point Thoroughbreds, Randy Moss, Bill Finley, and Zoe Cadman reviewed last week's major preps for the GI Kentucky Derby and the GI Kentucky Oaks and previewed the big races set to be run on a weekend that will be topped by the GI Florida Derby and the GI Arkansas Derby. They also took a look at the impending and improbable comeback of 63-year-old jockey Pat Valenzuela.Click here to watch the Writers' Room and here to listen to the podcast. 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