Thread: The Real Reasons Congress Can't Act on Guns or Immigration

The Real Reasons Congress Can't Act on Guns or Immigration

March 23, 2018

Lauren Fox


(CNN) Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin has spent the last six months attempting to do the impossible: find a solution inside the US Capitol to an immigration quagmire.

Standing on a marble staircase just off the Senate floor, he lamented Thursday that one of his worst legislative fears had come true: after a brief shutdown over immigration, fits and starts of negotiations with the White House and more than one bipartisan bill, Congress would leave for the Easter recess without enshrining in law a program that has given individuals who entered the US illegally as children a chance to live, work and be educated in the United States without fear of deportation.

We are one court decision away from hundreds of thousands of young people being deported," Durbin said on the floor as he attempted to force a vote on a bill to protect recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which President Donald Trump chose to end last year but is in limbo in the judicial system.

The nuances, specificities, and friction points vary from issue to issue, but the ultimate reality is the same: While public support for fixing immigration and changing the country's gun control laws is high, members across the Capitol admit that Congress is unable -- and at times unwilling -- to lead social change.

The body -- slow and precise -- doesn't act on moments of outrage, marches or walk outs. And while Congress was arguably not designed to react emotionally to the country's problems, the inaction on big-ticket items can give some constituents the impression that the Legislative Branch is not being responsive to its constituents. It instead waits, and at times, hopes, that the courts, the President and state houses will do the work for them.

"My philosophy is very simple," said Rep. John Lewis, a Democrat from Georgia. "Leaders must lead and we're not leading."

But Trump also complained about how Congress operates Friday, as he signed a $1.3 trillion spending package.

"I looked very seriously at the veto," Trump said at the White House after signing the bill. "I was thinking about doing the veto, but because of the incredible gains we've been able to make for the military, that overrode any of our thinking...

Public support is high, but most members haven't changed their minds. And unlike a spending bill you can fill with sweeteners to entice members to vote "yes," there is no amount of money that will change decades-worth of identity politics overnight. There's no deadline forcing a vote any time soon and with an election looming, a debate carries more risks than it does a guarantee of substantive change.

"We had a DACA debate and we ended up with nothing to show for it," Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said when asked why the Senate hadn't engaged in a robust floor debate on things like immigration.

An open debate would expose members on both sides of the aisle to tough, political votes just months before the midterm election.

The Democratic Senate Whip Durbin told CNN that he believes the blame falls on both sides of the aisle when it comes to ducking.

On immigration, lawmakers told CNN that the courts have largely allowed Congress to stay silent on DACA since their last attempt. While tens of thousands of DACA recipients are left in limbo as they wait to see how their future unfolds, Congress has yet to feel the heat of the program actually ending.

"I don't know when we'll get" a fix, Flake said. "We just have to wait until the court rules and maybe that will force a deadline that forces us to come back, but without a deadline, it's tough to do. It's very difficult. It's difficult under the best of circumstances in an off (election) year."



https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/23/polit...ion/index.html