The Hill: NRA forces Pelosi retreat

Date: Mar 4, 2009 11:13 PM

So the NY Times and other media outlets report the NRA is dead.

The Hill is the best source for inside the U.S. Congress workings.

FYI (copy below):

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/nra-forces-pelosi-retreat-2009-03-03.html

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NRA forces Pelosi retreat

By Mike Soraghan

Posted: 03/03/09 08:18 PM [ET]

Democrats may be running the House, but the National Rifle

Association (NRA) can still stop a bill in its tracks.

House Democratic leaders on Tuesday pulled legislation from

the floor that seemingly had nothing to do with guns because

the NRA disliked it.

The bill in question would give the District of Columbia a

voting member of Congress. The gun-rights lobby prefers a

Senate version, which includes language amending the

Districts gun policies, and some suggest the NRA could make

life difficult for conservative Democrats if that language

is not included in the House version.

There was no official call to arms, nothing on the NRA

website, no alerts floating around. Just speculation among

Democrats and Republicans that the NRA would make a

procedural vote on legislation that would give the District

of Columbia a voting member of Congress a test vote.

That means that if centrist Democrats voted with their

leadership, they could lose their prized A-ratings from

the NRA, which many consider essential to keeping their jobs

in rural, Southern and Western districts. So the D.C.

Voting Rights Act was pulled from consideration for

Wednesday. Aides stressed that negotiations are continuing

and it could be brought back soon.

The reluctance to bring the vote to the floor highlights the

continuing clout of the NRA, as well as the difficulty faced

by Democrats, whose majority comes from an increasing number

of members elected in Republican districts.

Still, the NRA has aroused the ire of some gun-rights

Democrats by appearing to tell House leaders that an

amendment has to be considered. Some Blue Dogs say that

amounts to telling the House how to run its business.

The D.C. vote bill needs to pass, said Rep. Dennis

Cardoza (D-Calif.), a Blue Dog gun-rights supporter who sits

on the House Rules Committee. I would have concerns about

any group who would tell us how to run our House.

The NRAs clout was evident last week when the amendment

removing D.C.s ban on semiautomatic weapons, its

registration requirement and trigger-lock rule was adopted

by the Senate, 62-36.

Also, Democratic leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

(Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) were

quick to shoot down the administrations trial balloon on

bringing back the assault-weapons ban.

Supporters of the Districts voting-rights legislation

predicted that a similar amendment could be kept off the

House bill. As long as it were in only one version,

Democratic leaders could strip it out in conference.

Conference reports cant be amended, just voted up or down,

so the conference report would pass without the gun bill.

But that got complicated when word spread in the House that

the NRA would score the procedural vote (called a rule)

used to bring up the Voting Rights Act if it didnt allow

for a vote on the gun language. That means that voting to

bring the bill to the floor would be considered a vote

against gun rights.

NRA officials wouldnt comment on whether they were scoring

the bill. But Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.), also a Blue Dog

gun-rights supporter, said hed heard it mentioned they

might do that. Anytime you do that, it makes it tougher.

D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the Houses most

passionate supporter of District voting rights, said there

was no doubt in her mind why the bill was being pulled.

Members are reacting in knee-jerk fashion to the NRA,

Norton said. This is Democratic members doing something to

kill a basic civil rights bill.

Democratic leaders, led by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer

(D-Md.), were put in a bind. If they allow the gun language

on the bill, they would not only give the NRA a victory,

they might lose the bill. Since many Republicans would vote

against voting rights for the District even with gun

language in the legislation, the leaders might lose enough

Democrats that the whole bill would be defeated.

If the rule passes, we might not be able to pass the bill,

Hoyer said.

He added that since Congress has given D.C. home rule, it

should not be dictating its gun laws.

Thats for them to do, Hoyer said of D.C. officials. On

principle, this is not appropriate.

But there are clearly Democrats who want to change D.C.s

gun policies, considered the strictest in the nation before

the Supreme Court last year tossed out the citys handgun

ban.

They want to be like the rest of America. One of the

things Americans do is pay attention to Supreme Court

rulings, said Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.), a member of the

House Second Amendment Task Force.

Republicans protested pulling the voting-rights legislation,

saying it shows the length that Democrats will go to in

order to prevent gun legislation from passing.

By maneuvering to deny Second Amendment rights to residents

of our nations capital, Democratic leaders have made it

clear that regular order and the will of the American

people will be respected only when it serves their

interests, said House Minority Leader John Boehner

(R-Ohio).

Democrats fought similar battles in the last Congress. The

D.C. gun vote was pulled in the House when Republicans tried

to send the bill back to committee to add the gun language.

Then the NRA and Republicans tried an election-year squeeze

on Blue Dogs to get the D.C. gun language to the floor using

a discharge petition. But Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and

Blue Dog leaders negotiated a compromise.

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !