House Republicans on Tuesday delayed by one day an effort to advance legislation aimed at requiring the government to take a tougher stance on radical Islamic terrorism, and allowing the government to ban the purchase of guns by certain people suspected of terrorism.
The House Rules Committee was set to meet Tuesday night to decide on a plan for considering the Homeland Safety and Security Act, a bill offered by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
Agreeing on a rule Tuesday would allow the House to consider the measure on the floor Wednesday.
But Tuesday afternoon, the Rules Committee announced its work on the bill would be delayed. The committee didn’t say how long the delay would be, but staffers told the Washington Examiner that Republicans want to discuss the bill Wednesday morning at a conference meeting.
That could allow the Rules Committee to take it up Wednesday for votes on the floor Thursday.
One House aide said the goal is to make sure members returning from their July 4 recess have time to read and understand the bill.
Previous delays at the Rules Committee have spelled trouble for other bills, although it’s still unclear if Republican opposition will make it hard to pass the terrorism/gun measure.
There is a lot of political pressure on both sides related to the bill. For Republicans, it’s a chance to force the Obama administration to put more of a focus on radical Islamic terrorism, a phrase the GOP says Democrats have been avoiding even mentioning when they talk about terrorist threats faced by the U.S.
The bill forces the Department of Homeland Security to focus on that specific threat, and is in part a reaction to comments from DHS that they’re not sure if officials have been scrubbing the term from department documents.
At the same time, it’s a way for Republicans to give Democrats a vote on gun control. Democrats staged a protest in late June over the lack of a gun vote, but have already been complaining that the GOP proposal doesn’t go nearly far enough.
The gun language in the House bill is similar to language that Republicans supported in the Senate, but Democrats mostly opposed. It would let the government delay gun purchases for a limited period of time while the government makes a case that the purchase should be denied, but that’s far short of the permanent ban Democrats want.
