Senate to consider domestic terrorism bill despite stiff Republican opposition

Family members look on during the funeral service for retired Buffalo Police officer Aaron Salter, Jr, a security guard who was shot dead in the attack by an avowed white supremacist at TOPS supermarket, in Buffalo, New York, May 25, 2022.

The House passed a domestic terrorism bill earlier this month after a mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y.

The legislation is doomed by opposition from Republicans.

Ten people were killed in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo on May 14 when an 18-year-old white supremacist went on a racist rampage. The House responded with a measure that would try to reduce racist violence.

The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act would create three new offices in the F.B.I., as well as in the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, to track and examine cases of potential domestic terrorism.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, pleaded with his Republican colleagues on Wednesday to consider the bill in the wake of May's second mass shooting carried out by a teenager: The killing of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde.

There were officers at the school. The shooter got past them.

The bill before the Senate on Thursday would respond to the threat of racist killings and would tighten gun background checks. A string of mass shootings in recent years, including in Buffalo, Atlanta, and El Paso, Texas, have targeted a specific racial minority group.

The legislation would force the Pentagon and federal law enforcement to expel white supremacists from their payrolls if it were passed.

The Senate is set to vote on cloture, a procedure that allows the chamber to limit debate and end a filibuster, just before noon in Washington.

The bill is likely to be stopped by Republicans. White supremacists and other agents of domestic terrorism can be prosecuted under current laws.

The domestic terrorism bill was opposed by Republicans in the House of Representatives, who said it would give the Justice Department too much power.

In a speech on the House floor last week, Roy castigated the effort, saying it was a waste of time.

Roy said that they understand what the domestic terrorism unit in this F.B.I. is all about.

The bill is about the federal bureaucracy being able to target Americans. The government will be able to target us for what we believe because of the thought crimes that are pervasive in this body.

The chances of the domestic terrorism bill passing the Senate are slim, but a growing number of Republicans seem to be open to discussing a separate gun-control policy after 31 Americans were shot to death in mass shootings in less than one month.

Marnie Beale of Arlington, Va., holds a sign at the Senate steps of the U.S. Capitol calling for background checks on gun purchases on Wednesday, May 25, 2022, after the latest mass shooting at a Texas elementary school.

Schumer has leaned on the negotiating powers of Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat and fierce advocate of stricter gun policy, to determine what measures could win the support of 10 Republicans.

Murphy's chances of success are low because a solid majority of Republicans would never consider any additional gun regulation.

Murphy said at the press conference that he will speak with Republicans later in the day.

We are going to extend a hand of partnership to those who have been sitting on the sidelines, and to those who have chosen to side with the gun lobby. Murphy said they were going to give them a seat at the table.

We will be talking to each other to try to find common ground to make our streets and schools safer.

A decade ago, after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, a retiring Republican from Pennsylvania, authored a bill.

The bill that would have expanded background checks and closed certain gun purchase loopholes won majority support in the Senate, but lacked the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster.

I still believe that the idea that Joe Manchin and I had that requiring background checks on all commercial sales of firearms is a completely reasonable policy that does not violate the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

There are laws that allow family members to ask a court to order the temporary removal of guns from a person suspected of posing a danger to themselves or others.

Both of those are discussions that are currently going on.