"The expanded use of formal rules on Capitol Hill is unprecedented and is bringing government to its knees."The Senate has taken the term ‘deliberative’ to a new level, slowing not just contentious legislation but also bills that have overwhelming support.
The slaughter last April of 32 people at Virginia Tech University by a mentally disturbed student using a variety of guns he had purchased brought about an unusual, quick consensus in the political arena: guns should not be in the hands of people who are mentally ill.
Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), whose husband was shot and killed on a commuter train by a deranged individual, quickly drafted a bill to provide grants to states to put more information into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System of those individuals with criminal backgrounds and found by courts to pose a danger because of mental illness. The National Rifle Association endorsed the bill, as did the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. It passed the House unanimously in June, and seemed to be cruising toward enactment—a rare moment of cooperation not just between gun-oriented groups but across party lines in Congress.
Then came Senator Tom Coburn (R) of Oklahoma. Coburn put a hold on the bill by objecting to a unanimous consent agreement to bring it up in the Senate. For months after its passage by the House, the legislation remained in limbo until finally limping to enactment at the end of the year—not a shining example of how government can work but instead a casualty of the way the Senate operates.
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