Congress stalls on top issues, including guns, Zika, spending
Congress is poised to adjourn this week for a sevenweek summer recess without passing legislation to fight the Zika virus, block suspected terrorists from buying guns, or even keep the government open past September.
The mass shooting at the Orlando gay nightclub in June and the growing public health threat of Zika have not been enough to overcome the partisan stalemate that has derailed most major legislation in Congress this year. In the House, reaching consensus on contentious issues such as gun control has been complicated even more by infighting among members of the Republican majority.
“Every single American should be disgusted by this, and every single member of Congress should be embarrassed,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Tuesday during the continued debate over Zika funding.
Lawmakers won’t return to the Capitol until Sept. 6, when they will have four weeks to pass a stop-gap spending bill to keep the federal government open when the 2017 fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, RWis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had made it a top priority to pass the 12 annual spending bills that govern how federal agencies spend billions in taxpayer dollars. But that effort quickly fell apart amid partisan squabbling, leaving Congress to face a single stop-gap spending bill that must be passed at the last minute to avoid a government shutdown.
There is likely to be a battle in September over how long such a stop-gap spending bill should last. Lawmakers on the appropriations committees that craft the spending bills want it to expire in December. That would give Congress a chance to pass a massive “omnibus” spending bill for 2017 and allow the next Congress to have a fresh start in January to work on 2018 bills. Conservatives want the stopgap measure to last into March, after President Obama has left office and can no longer have any impact on spending.
Not surprisingly, Republicans and Democrats are blaming each other for running down the clock without taking action on high-profile issues.
After the June 12 shooting in Orlando that killed 49 club-goers and wounded more than 50 others, leaders of both political parties offered gun legislation, but no bipartisan consensus has been reached.
Democratic lawmakers in both chambers upended legislative proceedings and demanded votes on gun control legislation. In the Senate, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., led a nearly 15-hour filibuster; and in the House, Rep. John Lewis, DGa., led a sit-in on the House floor for 25 hours. Little has come of their efforts, and the prospects for any gun legislation passing this year look bleak.
Senators deadlocked largely along partisan lines to block five gun measures. In the House, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., pledged to bring a bill to the floor that would ban gun sales to people on a government watch list of suspected terrorists. But he postponed the vote after Democrats complained that it was too weak.