Proving that Democrats are capable of actual governing, addressing more than one critical issue at a time, on Wednesday the House began consideration of significant gun safety legislation while at the same time doing actual oversight of the executive by taking testimony from former Trump fixer Michael Cohen.
On Wednesday the House passed the first of the bills, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, which expands background checks on private gun sales, including online sales and gun shows. The legislation passed 240-190, though not unscathed by Republican meddling. They succeeded in amending it to include a bullshit anti-immigration provision requiring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be notified when undocumented immigrants try to buy a gun. Because of course anyone in the country illegally is going to try to purchase a weapon from a licensed gun dealer who has to report the sale. Nonetheless, 26 Democrats voted for the provision, and it passed. That doesn't cloud the fact, however, that the House just passed the only gun safety bill to come to the floor in eight years, and did it with just eight Republicans.
On Thursday, the House will consider the Enhanced Background Checks Act, which would extend the FBI's background check period from three to 20 days, closing the so-called Charleston loophole. That short background-check period allowed Dylann Roof, the killer of nine people at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, to get the gun he used in that murder spree even though he had a felony drug charge that should have precluded the sale.
Major gun safety legislation hasn't passed Congress since 1994, when an assault weapons ban and the Brady Bill background checks bills passed. Neither of these bills, though both will pass the House with large margins, will see the light of day in the Senate, because Mitch McConnell will not bring them to the floor. No matter how popular they might be. (Expanding background checks regularly polls above 90 percent with voters.)
It's one more lever of pressure on Republicans and on McConnell, one that will resonate over the next two years. It's also a strong statement of what Democratic control over Congress is all about. In the words of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, the Democratic survivor of an assassination attempt, "It's a new day in Congress. Today, the House of Representatives will finally deliver more than thoughts and prayers, they'll deliver action. This is the power of our vote."