causing some soul-searching<\/a> on the Democratic side.<\/p>\nThat provision would overturn a 1993 law which prevents veterans deemed incompetent to manage their finances by the Department of Veterans Affairs from purchasing guns and ammunition. Under the new language, such veterans seeking to buy firearms could get a judicial hearing.<\/p>\n
Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, who gave an impassioned floor speech against the measure, although he didn\u2019t urge a \u201cno\u201d vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many good things in this bill, things that will benefit everyday Americans,\u201d Takano said. \u201cBut\u2026 this bill comes at the expense of our most vulnerable veterans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senate appropriator Christopher S. Murphy, D-Conn., announced Wednesday that he would oppose the package due to the rider.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are very, very mentally ill veterans \u2014those at the highest risk of suicide,\u201d Murphy said in a statement. \u201cI can\u2019t sugarcoat this: this provision \u2014 which could result in 20,000 new seriously mentally ill individuals being able to buy guns each year \u2014 will be a death sentence for many.\u201d<\/p>\n
Concerns about the language don\u2019t appear to be widespread enough among Democrats to dim the overall package\u2019s prospects in the Senate.<\/p>\n
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., worried that changing current law could result in more veteran suicides. But he stopped short of vowing to oppose the legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cShutting down the government is never a good option,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s important that we fund the government but we\u2019re having discussions about that provision, specifically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly is married to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who was wounded in a 2011 mass shooting while at a constituent event. The anti-gun violence organization she founded came out against the package due to the inclusion of the rider.<\/p>\n
Ultimately both parties appear to be finding enough things to like in the package \u2014 including nearly $13 billion in home-state earmarks.<\/p>\n
House Appropriations Chairwoman Kay Granger, R-Texas, said during floor debate that the bill \u201chonors our commitment to our veterans, strengthens our energy security, holds agencies accountable, supports our farmers and ranchers and makes our transportation systems safer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats say their party successfully blocked Republicans from securing almost all of their policy priorities in the package, and limited the funding cuts.<\/p>\n
Schumer said Wednesday the six-bill package includes \u201caggressive investments in American families, moms and kids, veterans, workers, and more. And we prevented any devastating cuts or poison pills pushed by the hard-right.\u201d<\/p>\n
In particular, Democrats have highlighted the $7 billion in funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, in the Agriculture bill as a point of pride.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis legislation does not have everything either side may have wanted, but I am pleased that many of the extreme cuts and policies proposed by House Republicans were excluded,\u201d House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said.<\/p>\n
_____<\/p>\n
(Briana Reilly and Peter Cohn contributed to this report.)<\/p>\n
_____<\/p>\n
\u00a92024 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com.<\/a> Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/p>\nKeyWords:: 16276daf-5b21-4212-9bff-f32668f42b6f
\n16276daf 5b21 4212 9bff f32668f42b6f
\nBC-CONGRESS-SPENDING-1ST-LEDE:CON
\nBC CONGRESS SPENDING 1ST LEDE CON<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON \u2014 The House overwhelmingly voted to pass a six-bill, $467.5 billion final fiscal 2024 appropriations package Wednesday, a long-awaited step forward in a lengthy process that is just now beginning to come to a close nearly six months after the fiscal year began. The vote, which required two-thirds support under suspension of the rules, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135720,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135719\/revisions\/135720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}