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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) stopped short of endorsing the bipartisan agreement on a framework to combat gun violence after a deal was announced Sunday.
The top-ranking Senate Republican issued a statement praising the work of Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and John Cornyn (R-TX) without endorsing the deal, which still needs to be translated into legislative language. Instead, he said he hoped their efforts would result in a “bipartisan product.”
“I am glad Sens. Cornyn and Murphy are continuing to make headway in their discussions. I appreciate their hard work on this important issue,” McConnell’s statement began. “The principles they announced today show the value of dialogue and cooperation.”
SENATORS ANNOUNCE ‘COMMONSENSE, BIPARTISAN’ FRAMEWORK DEAL ON GUN REFORMS
McConnell went on to say that he continued to “hope their discussions yield a bipartisan product that makes significant headway on key issues like mental health and school safety, respects the Second Amendment, earns broad support in the Senate, and makes a difference for our country.”
The bipartisan framework, made public earlier Sunday, is currently in outline form. It has yet to be written in bill form, a process expected to be far more tenuous than reaching the core tenets of the initial agreement.
Murphy acknowledged to Reuters in an interview Sunday that a “significant amount of work remains” for the deal to turn into passable legislation. He added that getting the framework translated into legislative language will be the immediate next step.
“We’re going to get to work writing [legislative] text first thing [Monday] morning,” he told the outlet, adding that he hoped for Senate passage by early August, or possibly sooner.
Murphy and Cornyn’s framework includes some reforms on access to firearms and cracking down on illegal gun sales, along with funding for mental health and school security, and measures meant to protect victims of domestic violence.
In addition to Murphy and Cornyn, the legislation is backed by Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Richard Burr (R-NC), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Angus King (I-ME), Rob Portman (R-OH), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Thom Tillis (R-NC).
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If all ten Republicans listed above maintain their support for the deal through the bill writing process, and Democrats deliver all 50 of their votes, the legislation will be able to break through the Senate filibuster. The filibuster is the Senate rule requiring 60 members to end debate on most topics and move forward to a vote.
In this Senate, Democrats need 10 Republicans to move any major legislation forward, though they can bypass the filibuster through budget reconciliation on certain bills.
Having McConnell’s backing on the final bill will almost certainly be critical to its success. His public support of last year’s bipartisan infrastructure negotiations — and his vote for the $1 trillion bill that emerged from those talks — was considered a significant boost to the bill, which earned 69 votes in a divided Senate.
