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The legislative gun that the National Rifle Association (NRA) put to the head of the District of Columbia government might not have any bullets.
The NRA won a decisive, bipartisan victory in the House on Wednesday on a bill that strips the District of Columbia’s government of much of its ability to regulate guns. But there is no agreement to bring the bill to the floor in the Senate — and with only seven legislative days left on the schedule, it is unlikely the bill will get floor time this year.
The bill, which according to District supporters represented unfair meddling by Congress in city matters, could get wrapped into a continuing resolution — must-pass legislation that keeps the government operating when Congress leaves. But even advocates of the bill concede that’s unlikely.
“We have a long list of things to do and not a lot of time to do them,” said a Senate leadership aide.
D.C.’s Democratic delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, said in a statement that she’s been assured by several senators they will put holds on the bill. The holds prevent floor debate and can only be broken with 60 votes and time-consuming legislative maneuvers.
“Although I was confident we could kill the bill in the Senate, it would have been a grave mistake for the District to fail to pull out all stops in the House,” Norton said in a statement.
She added that she had talked about the bill with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), though she did not indicate he’d given her any assurance the bill was dead in the House.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), who has sponsored a similar bill in the Senate, was circulating a letter for signatures Wednesday urging Reid to bring up the bill before Congress goes home for the year. That could be more likely if there is a lame-duck session after the election.
Hutchison is seeking out the 55 senators who signed a letter to the Supreme Court urging it to toss out D.C.’s handgun ban. The high court did just that in June.
“It is our hope that the Senate will act on this critical piece of legislation before the end of the 110th Congress,” said Chris W. Cox, the NRA’s chief lobbyist.
Even if the bill doesn’t pass this year, Wednesday’s vote was a big win for the NRA, which is commonly associated with Republicans. The gun lobbying group had made the bill its top priority this year.
It also demonstrated the degree to which Democratic leaders have given in on the gun issue and the amount of support the NRA can count on within the Democratic caucus, especially in an election year.
Eighty-two Democrats voted for the measure, hammered out in negotiations between the NRA and Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.), Mike Ross (D-Ark.) and John Tanner (D-Tenn.) and introduced by Rep. Travis Childers (D-Miss.).
The support went well beyond the ranks of conservative and Blue Dog Democrats to the realm of generally liberal lawmakers who have fought the NRA in the past, several of whom are running for statewide office.
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