The U.S. Senate is set to adjourn Thursday afternoon for a 10-day recess, or as lawmakers prefer to call it, a “district work period.”
Nobody is making Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer do this.
As of this writing, after today, the U.S. House of Representatives adjourns until June 7. No one made Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Majority Leader Steny Hoyer do that, either.
Since the horror of the Uvalde elementary school massacre, you’ve heard a lot of rhetoric from gun control advocates along the lines of “the time to act is now,” and “we can’t afford to wait another day, our children are dying,” and things like that. But Schumer concluded that holding a vote on legislation would be pointless because it would be unlikely to pass, and declared Wednesday, “Americans can cast their vote in November for senators or members of Congress that reflect how he or she stands with guns.” That suggests he doesn’t foresee the Senate voting on gun control legislation at all before Election Day.
And so, members of Congress will be back in their districts and states next week, instead of debating or voting on any legislation.
Gun control activists often complain that lawmakers squander momentum and public attention in the aftermath of horrifying mass shootings. This would appear to be a classic example of that phenomenon, but in the end, those activists have no one to blame but the Democratic elected officials. The GOP does not have a secret mind control ray that influences Schumer, Pelosi, and the rest. Democratic congressional leaders choose this path.
And while gun control activists repeatedly insist that public opinion is overwhelmingly on their side, one can’t help but wonder if swing-district and purple state Democrats aren’t quite so eager to vote on gun control legislation.