By Kristina Peterson and Natalie Andrews
WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers return to Washington on Monday to find a
familiar contentious issue -- guns -- taking a priority over
spending and immigration legislation that were expected to
preoccupy their time for the next several weeks.
The Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., and President
Donald Trump's subsequent calls on Congress to take action are
expected to reboot an effort to tighten the national
firearm-purchase background-check system. While no bills are
assured of moving forward, even debating and voting on gun
legislation will be politically fraught for many lawmakers of both
parties just eight months before midterm elections.
Congress is most likely to consider a measure from Sens. John
Cornyn (R., Texas) and Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) that would
encourage states and federal agencies, including the military, to
submit criminal-conviction records to the National Instant Criminal
Background Check System, or NICS. Mr. Cornyn introduced the bill
after the background-check system failed to prevent the gunman in a
Texas shooting last November from purchasing weapons, despite his
history of domestic abuse. Those records are required by law to be
uploaded, but they can slip through the cracks.
The Cornyn bill passed the House in December, but there it was
paired with legislation that would enable gun owners who legally
carry concealed firearms in one state to carry them in the other 49
states -- a major expansion of gun rights. Critics of the
concealed-carry reciprocity bill say it would trample on the
prerogative of states to set their own standards for carrying guns
in public.
The most immediate question is whether Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) will bring up the bill -- known as "Fix
NICS" -- on its own, without the concealed weapons provision. On
Monday, Florida's two senators, Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat
Bill Nelson, plan to try to bypass Senate procedures and pass the
bill with the unanimous consent of all 100 senators.
That route faces potential hurdles from at least two Republican
senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who have said
they are concerned about how individuals flagged under the
background check system would be able to appeal.
If the bill does pass the Senate, GOP leaders will have to
decide whether they are willing to bring it up on its own in the
House, without the concealed-carry reciprocity bill. That could
face backlash from conservatives, aides said.
So far, House GOP leaders have shown little appetite to take up
gun-control legislation. On Friday, House Majority Whip Steve
Scalise (R., La.), who was seriously injured in a shooting last
year, said on the Fox Business Network that the Florida shooting
instead revealed shortcomings in law enforcement's handling of tips
warning the gunman posed a threat.
Rep. Leonard Lance of New Jersey, who represents a swing
suburban district, on Friday sent a letter signed by 18 other House
Republicans urging House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) to bring up
the "Fix NICS" bill up for a stand-alone vote this week. Before the
recess, Mr. Ryan told reporters that if the background-check bill
were to pass the Senate, the two chambers would negotiate a
compromise.
Most Democrats support the bill, though they have pressed for
Congress to do more.
"Any step in the direction of preventing this kind of violence
from happening, we're going to be there," said Rep. Tim Ryan (D.,
Ohio).
The activism from young students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas
High School, the site of the shooting, has boosted Democrats'
optimism. Since the shooting, the students have spoken out against
lawmakers who have opposed gun-control legislation in the past and
against those who accept money from the National Rifle
Association.
"This feels so different and I'm so proud of those young
people," Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D., Mich.) said. "Every time we
bring up this discussion, we're squashed."
Many lawmakers and congressional aides remain skeptical that
Congress would pass any changes to the nation's gun laws. Continued
pressure from a Republican president, however, could persuade GOP
lawmakers to take modest steps aimed at preventing more gun
violence.
On Sunday, Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) touted a bill he crafted
with Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin in the wake of the
2012 Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting. The bill would
expand background checks to all online sales and sales at gun
shows, with the goal of flagging people with criminal or
mental-health histories that disqualify them from gun ownership.
Currently, the checks are needed only for sales by federally
licensed dealers. In 2013 the bill failed to win 60 votes needed to
pass the Senate.
"I do think there are some members who were not supportive in
the past who are reconsidering," Mr. Toomey said on NBC's "Meet the
Press." "The president's expression of support for strengthening
our background check system is very constructive... So I intend to
give this another shot."
Among the possible hurdles to any gun bill getting 60 votes in
the Senate is the fact that many Democrats from
conservative-leaning states are up for re-election this year.
Since the Florida shooting, Mr. Trump has made multiple posts on
Twitter on the matter, held meetings with victims, state and local
officials at the White House and discussed his proposals at length
on Friday before a crowd of conservative activists.
"We will do something. We will act," Mr. Trump said at the
Conservative Political Action Conference. "I really believe that
Congress is going to get it through this time," he added.
He is expected to host a bipartisan group of lawmakers to
discuss gun violence on Wednesday, according to a White House
official.
Mr. Trump has suggested Congress could tighten the
background-check system and raise the minimum age for some gun
purchases to 21. On Tuesday, he directed Attorney General Jeff
Sessions to draft regulations that would ban "bump stocks," devices
that increase the shooting efficiency of semiautomatic weapons. The
president also has called repeatedly for select, trained educators
to carry weapons on school grounds.
Amid the revived gun debate, lawmakers have until March 23 to
draft spending legislation that will fund the government through
the rest of the fiscal year, which runs through September. Earlier
this month, congressional leaders struck a two-year budget deal
that would raise federal spending by almost $300 billion above
limits imposed by a 2011 budget law. Lawmakers are now writing
detailed spending legislation under the deal's parameters.
The spending bill, which must be passed before the government's
current funding expires at 12:01 a.m. on March 24, could also be a
place where lawmakers tuck in any extension of an Obama-era program
that has prevented the deportation of the so-called Dreamers, young
undocumented immigrants brought to the country by their parents.
Mr. Trump ended the program in September, but gave Congress until
March 5 to pass a replacement. Meanwhile, two federal judges have
halted the Trump administration's move to end the program; the
Justice Department appealed.
In addition, Mr. Trump has asked for billions in funding for a
wall along the Mexican border, as well as limits to family-based
immigration and an end to the diversity lottery visa program which
admits immigrants from underrepresented countries. After a week of
debate earlier this month on a variety of immigration bills, the
Senate didn't pass any immigration legislation.
--Peter Nicholas contributed to this article.
Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com and
Natalie Andrews at Natalie.Andrews@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 25, 2018 14:25 ET (19:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.