WASHINGTON (AP) – As the nation struggles with a new mass shooting and faces a death toll at the hands of police, President Joe Biden is calling for action. Going further, however, is much more difficult.
Three months into his presidency, Biden’s solid agenda runs counter to the realities of his narrow Democratic majority on Capitol Hill and the Senate’s limited ability to deal with multiple legislations on a large scale at once. With the White House focused first on a broad coronavirus relief package and now on a broad infrastructure plan that will likely dominate the Congressional calendar for months, issues such as gun control and police reform seem to occupy a background.
On Friday, Biden insisted that was not the case, saying that, particularly on the issue of gun control, “I have never given priority to this.” He spoke a day after a gunman killed eight people at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, the latest in a massive shooting eruption across the United States in recent weeks.
In Biden’s question there are many of the central promises he made to Democratic voters (particularly the black voters who helped push him into the White House), both about his priorities and about his ability to maneuver in Washington, where issues like gun control have been languishing for years. Mass shootings, as well as a new focus on police killings of black Americans after incidents in Chicago and a Minneapolis suburb, have increased demand for action
DeAnna Hoskins, president and CEO of Just LeadershipUSA, a advocacy group for police reform, suggested activists are willing to be patient but not for long. He welcomed Biden’s recent executive orders on gun control, which took modest steps to harden the background, but said “these actions do not go far enough.”
“They don’t have their tentacles down to really hit where the rubber hits the road,” Hoskins said.
The White House says it can do a variety of tasks, publicly pushing its infrastructure plan as it works to gain support among Democrats and moderate Republicans in gun control and behind-the-scenes police reform.
“In this building, the legislative team, members of the White House staff, are working on several fronts at once,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
Officials say Biden’s less important role in legislative discussions on weapons and policing is by design, out of the risk of further politicizing already complicated negotiations. They also claim that issuing executive orders on police could undermine any impetus on the issue at Capitol Hill, and are bolstered by growing discussions in Congress, such as talks between Republican Sen. Tim Scott and Democratic Sen. Cory Booker.
Still, Biden himself has described his legislative strategy as a “one-on-one” approach. He said last month that successful presidents are moving forward because “they know how to calculate the time they do, sort it out, decide and prioritize what needs to be done.”
Implicit in this statement was that some priorities would have to wait their turn.
Biden has taken some executive action against firearms, aimed at homemade “ghost weapons” and handgun stabilizers that allow them to be fired from a shoulder, like a rifle. He has not proposed new legislation to repeal the liability protection of gun manufacturers or tighten federal background checks, despite pledging to send that legislation to Congress on its first day in office. Instead, he is supporting legislation proposed by House Democrats.
In connection with police reform, Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday rescinded the limits of Trump-era consent decrees, court-ordered agreements that were used to enforce police department reforms. But Biden has yet to take any significant executive action, focusing largely on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act on Capitol Hill.
This approach has been taken by some major police reform groups, including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, interim President and CEO Wade Henderson said the legislation was the best approach to this intractable problem. .
“This issue is too urgent to delay and Congress is by far the most appropriate place to consider changes to the law on police accountability,” he said in a statement.
But this bill, passed by the House, is in the Senate and this is where counting votes is complicated for the Biden White House.
Legislation on weapons and policing cannot be considered in Congress through the process of budget reconciliation, the path Democrats took to pass the virus relief with just 50 votes from their party in the Senate. It’s the same way they appear on track to deal with infrastructure. That means Democrats would need 10 Republicans to join them in approving firearms or police legislation under current Senate procedures.
“I strongly urge my Republican friends in Congress to refuse to introduce the bill passed by the House to present it now,” Biden said Friday, referring to the gun control measure. “Who in the name of God needs a weapon that can contain 100 cycles, 40 cycles or 20 cycles. It’s just wrong and I’m not going to give up until it’s over.
Key lawmakers, including Sen. Chris Murphy of D-Conn., Have been trying to come up with a way to circumvent the stalemate by involving colleagues in bipartisan talks. The House bill to expand background checks is similar to the one that approached the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shootings, but now senators are entangled in differences over provisions, including transfers of ‘firearms among family members. No progress appears in sight.
“In the end, Congress has to do its job,” said Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev, who recalled the president’s message to lawmakers during a two-hour private session with members of the Black Caucus of Congress this week .
The logjam in the Senate on such priority issues has increased pressure on Biden to adopt a growing movement within the Democratic Party to remove the 60-vote threshold needed to pass most legislation. But here, too, he faces opposition from his own party: West Virginia Democratic Sensor Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema oppose the elimination of the filibuster. Manchin also opposes gun control laws passed by the House, making it even more difficult for him to get into the Senate.
The White House is in frequent contact with gun control groups. Most say they are pleased with the first round of executive action Biden took and cautiously optimistic about its promise to work to pass legislation on Capitol Hill.
Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Armed Violence, said that while “I always want the Biden administration to do more,” he doesn’t see a “lack of effort” from Democrats in Congress or the White House.
“I think the key question is how much pressure we can put on Republicans in the Senate. How many more episodes of daily armed violence, how many more massive shootings will we have to watch? “He said.
Horwitz said, “The state ship takes a while to turn around, but we don’t have time for people to die every day.”
Melina Abdullah, co-director of Black Lives Matter-Grassroots, which coordinates chapter-based fieldwork for BLM, said Biden’s focus on infrastructure is a distraction from police crises occurring in communities of color.
“It’s been 160 days since Biden told blacks,‘ You’ve always had your back and I’ll have yours, ’” Abdullah said in a statement sent to the AP
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AP writers Lisa Mascaro and Aaron Morrison contributed.