The Senate won’t act on gun control until President Trump pitches a proposal to Congress that he’ll agree to sign into law, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday after the two parties took swipes at each other over the issue.
A top Trump administration official informed Senate lawmakers in a closed-door briefing Tuesday the White House will be sending a measure to Congress in the coming days, but nobody knows what it will look like.
Trump has signaled support for expanding background checks as well as “red flag” laws that would allow law enforcement to seize guns from individuals deemed dangerous to themselves or others.
“They are working on a proposal the president will sign,” McConnell said. “Until that happens, all of this is theatrics.”
The Kentucky Republican plans to meet with Trump Tuesday afternoon for a regularly scheduled post-recess talk on the agenda and gun control will be part of those discussions.
Republican lawmakers told the Washington Examiner Tuesday they are waiting to hear from the president on gun legislation, and his support of a specific measure is essential for winning the 60 votes required to pass anything in the Senate.
Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who has authored background check legislation that is a leading contender among possible Senate proposals to address gun violence, said he has talked to Trump at least a half-dozen times recently about his bill.
Toomey authored the legislation with Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat. It would expand background checks to all commercial sales, eliminating loopholes for gun shows and other sales. The measure excludes private gun sales.
The Senate, however, rejected the Toomey-Manchin measure in 2013 and 2015 and many GOP lawmakers say they still have problems with the bill because they believe it is too broad or would put too much of a burden on smaller gun sellers who may have difficulty utilizing the background check system.
“There are ways we can address that,” Toomey said Tuesday. “I am confident that we can address those concerns.”
Toomey said he believes some of the Republicans who voted “no” on Toomey-Manchin in 2015 may vote for it this time along with newer GOP lawmakers who told Toomey they are interested in the bill.
“I know there are people who are rethinking this,” Toomey said of some GOP senators who he declined to name. ”I know the president’s support is essential but with that support I think we can get to the 60 votes we need.”
McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer traded barbs over gun control legislation Tuesday.
McConnell called a Monday press conference by Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of California, a “stunt.”
The two Democratic lawmakers held the event in a room near the Senate Chamber to pressure McConnell to take up a House-passed bill that would expand background checks more broadly than the Toomey-Manchin measure. They invited the mayor of Dayton, Ohio, where a mass shooting took place on Aug. 5.
McConnell pointed out Trump has pledged to veto the House bill, and it has attracted only a handful of GOP votes.
The House bill would expand background check requirements to all gun sales and would eliminate sales by non-licensed dealers.
McConnell, noting the lack of GOP and presidential support for the bill, accused Democrats of “a level of seriousness that is completely lacking,” and said the party is trying to scare people and drum up an excuse for a press conference rather than make a law that responds to the summer’s string of deadly mass shootings.
Schumer, who spoke to reporters after McConnell, said the Senate should take up the House bill. He denounced McConnell’s criticism of the Monday press conference.
“Shame on him, there are people who died, shame on him,” Schumer said. “Put the bill on the floor and stop ducking the issue and calling names.”
