This week: Senate showdown over gun control

The Senate is heading for a battle over gun control this week in the wake of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has scheduled up to four procedural votes for Monday evening after Democrats took control of the floor for nearly 15 hours to protest congressional inaction on the issue. 

Senators will take votes on competing measures from Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) aimed at blocking likely terrorists from buying guns or explosives. 

{mosads}Cornyn’s proposal would allow the attorney general to delay suspected terrorists from getting a gun for up to 72 hours while seeking a court order to stop the sale.

It would also let the attorney general delay the sale of a gun to anyone who has been the subject of a terror investigation within the past five years.

The latter provision comes after gunman Omar Mateen—who was previously on a federal watchlist—killed 49 people and injured 53 more in a packed gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla. 

Democrats, however, have balked at the GOP measure, arguing it adds unnecessary hurdles to letting the attorney general block a gun sale. 

Instead, they are backing Feinstein’s measure to allow the attorney general to deny the sale of a gun if there is a “reasonable suspicion” that an individual has or will be involved in a terrorist attack. 

But Republicans have disavowed the proposal as too broad, saying it would negatively impact Americans who aren’t tied to terrorism. 

With 60 votes needed to move forward, it’s unclear if either of the proposals will be able to get enough support to move forward. 

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told reporters this week that she’s trying to craft a compromise bill, though it hasn’t been formally introduced or scheduled for floor time. 

According to Collins, the forthcoming legislation would block the sale of guns to terror suspects who are either on the “no fly” list or a “selectee” list, which lets them board a plane if they undergo additional screening at airports. 

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who faces a difficult reelection bid, has also introduced his own proposal, though it’s been disavowed by Democrats. 

The Senate will also debate two background check proposals. 

A measure from GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) would reauthorize and provide funding for the National Instant Background Check System (NICS), provide incentives to share mental health records and bolster federal record sharing.

The Senate will also take a procedural vote on a proposal from Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy (Conn.), Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and Cory Booker (N.J.) to expand background checks.

Their proposal would require — with a handful of narrow exceptions — a background check for the sale and transfer of any gun.

Each of the four proposals is being offered as an amendment to the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations bill currently being debated by the Senate. 

The $56.3-billion proposal funds the Departments of Commerce and Justice, as well as NASA, the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

IRS funding

The House is expected to consider a spending bill for financial agencies spanning the Internal Revenue Service, Securities and Exchange Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The measure would cut the IRS budget by $236 million below the current enacted level, a figure that’s $1.3 billion lower than the Obama administration’s funding request. Debate over IRS funding will come as Republicans wrestle with potentially holding a vote to impeach the agency’s commissioner, John Koskinen.  

Conservative lawmakers who have pushed for Koskinen’s ouster allege that he lied under oath and erased data key for a House investigation over the agency’s targeting of conservative nonprofits. 

Also this week, the House Judiciary Committee will hold its second hearing on the possible impeachment of Koskinen and hear testimony from four legal experts.

Time is running short for the House to possibly schedule a floor vote on impeachment before both chambers depart for the long summer recess in mid-July. 

It’s also a limited timeframe for the House to finish work on appropriations bills by then. The House has only passed three out of 12 annual spending bills so far. And with the early adjournment, some sort of stopgap measure appears likely when lawmakers return in September.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) is expected to again push for a vote on his amendment to enforce a 2014 executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people. 

House GOP leaders barred his amendment from getting floor time last week in the aftermath of the attack on the gay nightclub in Orlando. The same outcome is likely again, since Maloney’s amendment caused trouble for Republicans on two other appropriations bills last month.

House GOP agenda rollout

The House GOP is slated to unveil the final two planks of their policy platform this week to overhaul the tax code and replace ObamaCare.

Despite trying a variety of avenues to undercut the 2010 healthcare law – through pushing to block funds, voting more than 60 times to repeal it and suing President Obama – Republicans have yet to unveil a replacement plan.

The long-awaited proposal to replace ObamaCare is expected to be more of a broad outline and leave out specific dollar figures for some key provisions, lobbyists and aides say. 

The House is also expected to consider legislation to give courts, rather than executive agencies, more authority to interpret “ambiguous” statutes enacted by Congress. A vote on that bill will come a week after House Republicans released their platform calling for the legislative branch to restore its authority over what they see as executive overreach by President Obama.