Campaign Action
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to be known as the Grim Reaper of the Senate. He wants his Senate to be known as a legislative graveyard—and he’s done stellar work on making it so.
Senate Democrats are calling attention to that, highlighting the list of major bills passed by the House that McConnell has refused to even allow a Senate vote on, or things the House is actively considering that we already know McConnell would block.
- The Violence Against Women Act, which had been bipartisan in the past
- Background checks for gun sales, which have overwhelming public support
- The For the People Act on voting rights and fighting corruption, which McConnell sees as a Democratic “power grab” because it would make it easier to vote
- Election security, because McConnell doesn’t seem to mind Russian election hacking as long as it benefits his team
- The Equality Act against anti-LGBTQ discrimination, because ha ha ha, forget it
- Anything to protect or strengthen healthcare laws, because yeah, no
“What is really difficult to swallow for those of us that worked so hard to get to the United States Senate is that we’re not even trying to do our job any longer,” says Sen. Chris Murphy in the video released by the Democratic senators. “We come in and cast a few votes on nominations and then go home on Thursdays.”
Then again, that schedule is giving McConnell exactly what he wants: a judiciary packed with judges to block laws passed by a future Democratic Congress and president, and inaction on anything to help people whose net worth has fewer than eight digits.