Pelosi says she’s optimistic on background checks

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Saturday she is optimistic that a bipartisan bill on background checks will pass before the 2020 election.

Pelosi said she thinks the bill will pass the Senate along with other bipartisan bills approved in the House, including for equal pay, during a Saturday visit to Gateway Community College in New Haven, Conn, The Connecticut Post reported.

“The first 10 bills that we advanced when we took control of the House, they all had bipartisan support,” The Connecticut Post reported she said at the event. “It is interesting though, that if they don’t pass those bills, there is a consequence in the election, so we hope that would be a motivator in addition to do the right thing.”

Pelosi has told Senate Republicans that there would be “hell to pay” if the universal background check bill does not pass. 

“Some of the gun violence prevention groups have upped the ante even further to say that if this bill is not passed, Mitch McConnell and Republicans in the Senate and the president will have hell to pay,” Pelosi said at a press conference Monday. “So let’s save time.” 

She also has condemned Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for not bringing up the bill in the Senate.

Pelosi’s comments come at a time where gun reform has become a central conversation in Congress following the August mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, Dayton, Ohio and Odessa, Texas that killed almost 40 people.

The bill, which passed the House in February and awaits a vote in the Senate, would mandate all gun sellers conduct background checks on their customers buying guns.