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(The Guardian) Democrats clash over gun reforms, police funding
Democratic leaders in the House are facing resistance from progressive members over efforts to push through gun reforms before the chamber takes off for its six-week August break. But it’s not what it seems.
A hearing of the oversight committee this morning, at which gun industry executives will testify about their policies and huge profits, has brought the dispute into better focus. According to Punchbowl News, Democratic leadership’s attempt to package gun controls, including an assault weapons ban and bill authored by California congressman Adam Schiff to eliminate civil liability protections for manufacturers, with police funding measures, has upset members of both the Black and progressive congressional caucuses.
It’s not that they don’t want more rigid gun laws in the wake of recent massacres in New York, Texas and elsewhere. They do. But Punchbowl says the fact that some of the police funding proposals haven’t been worked through committee is causing “uproar”, and raising doubts that anything will get passed.
Here’s what Washington congresswoman and progressive caucus chair Pramila Jayapal told Punchbowl: We want to act on public safety bills that unify the caucus and would like to move forward on the bills that have broad support in the Dem caucus... For the other bills to move forward, people feel strongly that there needs to be strong accountability language before [members] would look at them. There is some time to figure those things out, but for now, we are supportive of moving the assault weapons ban and the Schiff bill separately, and any bills that have broad support of the entire caucus.
Joe Biden had been poised last week to ask Congress to support his $37bn crime prevention plan, including funding to help US police departments hire and train an additional 100,000 officers, but the announcement was shelved by the US president’s Covid-19 diagnosis.
The House Democratic caucus is meeting this morning, Punchbowl says, in an attempt to salvage the situation, while the rules committee sits this afternoon to discuss Schiff’s bill, and the assault weapons proposal authored by David Cicilline of Rhode Island.
Democratic leaders in the House are facing resistance from progressive members over efforts to push through gun reforms before the chamber takes off for its six-week August break. But it’s not what it seems.
A hearing of the oversight committee this morning, at which gun industry executives will testify about their policies and huge profits, has brought the dispute into better focus. According to Punchbowl News, Democratic leadership’s attempt to package gun controls, including an assault weapons ban and bill authored by California congressman Adam Schiff to eliminate civil liability protections for manufacturers, with police funding measures, has upset members of both the Black and progressive congressional caucuses.
It’s not that they don’t want more rigid gun laws in the wake of recent massacres in New York, Texas and elsewhere. They do. But Punchbowl says the fact that some of the police funding proposals haven’t been worked through committee is causing “uproar”, and raising doubts that anything will get passed.
Here’s what Washington congresswoman and progressive caucus chair Pramila Jayapal told Punchbowl: We want to act on public safety bills that unify the caucus and would like to move forward on the bills that have broad support in the Dem caucus... For the other bills to move forward, people feel strongly that there needs to be strong accountability language before [members] would look at them. There is some time to figure those things out, but for now, we are supportive of moving the assault weapons ban and the Schiff bill separately, and any bills that have broad support of the entire caucus.
Joe Biden had been poised last week to ask Congress to support his $37bn crime prevention plan, including funding to help US police departments hire and train an additional 100,000 officers, but the announcement was shelved by the US president’s Covid-19 diagnosis.
The House Democratic caucus is meeting this morning, Punchbowl says, in an attempt to salvage the situation, while the rules committee sits this afternoon to discuss Schiff’s bill, and the assault weapons proposal authored by David Cicilline of Rhode Island.
