Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s nonvoting representative to Congress, even as she blasted other amendments on the House floor that would restrict funding for the District to implement laws created to protect women from workplace discrimination over reproductive decisions. “The plan is to be as disruptive to (House) Speaker (Paul) Ryan (R-WI) as possible next week”.
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After a hectic standoff, July 5th was declared the day they would reconvene.
The Democratic party is seeking two new gun control amendments. They include expanding background checks and banning gun sales to those on terrorism no-fly lists.
The Department of State has recorded at least 54 no votes from House Republicans, meaning it is mathematically impossible to secure a three-fifths vote of the 120 House members lawmakers in support of a session, despite 33 favorable voters from House Democrats.
House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, said the Democrats’ proposal was “motivated by partisan politics”.
For this political headache, compromise might be the only cure!
The GOP has planned to approve Republican legislation this week that would let federal authorities block gun sales to suspected terrorists, but only if they could prove in court within three days that the suspect was planning to engage in terrorism.
“We will not stop until every one of the NRA-funded politicians either steps up to the plate and enacts change, or we will vote them out of office”, said Barbara Parker, whose 24-year-old daughter Alison, a television journalist in Virginia, was murdered by a former colleague during an early morning broadcast less than a year ago.
House GOP leaders will meet with the chamber’s top law enforcement officer later today to discuss claims that “certain” Democratic lawmakers mistreated staffers during their sit-in last month, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, House GOP leaders said that the Democratic floor antics wouldn’t stand.
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), sponsor of the gun measure in the Republican anti-terrorism package, last week said, “I haven’t met a single member of Congress who wants to see terrorists acquire any firearms or explosives”.
If Attorney General Loretta Lynch “is still going to be in charge of who’s on the list, that’s a problem”, he said. Democrats have called the measure, which is similar to a Senate bill approved by the National Rifle Association, a “cynical” and unworkable policy which would not make Americans safer.
Mr Ryan’s spokeswoman AshLee Strong said the two parties “have different views on how to achieve a shared goal of preventing gun deaths” – especially over how to protect gun owners’ rights.
“We don’t know what form it’s going to take, but stay tuned”, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a leader of last month’s House sit-in, said at the rally about future Democratic actions.
But while Congress is still trickling back in, eight pro-gun control protestors were arrested by Capitol police after a 10-minute protest where they sat in the rotunda, under the dome, and chanted “no bill, no break”. The government would have to cover legal costs for people for whom it unsuccessfully tried to deny firearms.
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Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, who heads the conservative Republican Study Committee told CNN the bill was “still a work in progress” and said he and others were pushing for amendments to the gun provisions of the proposal.
