The final vote was 65-33 with 15 Republicans joining Democrats in support of the measure, which marked a major bipartisan advance on one of the country’s most controversial political issues. The bill will go to the House for a vote before it can be sent to President Joe Biden for it to be signed into law.
The bipartisan arms deal includes millions of dollars for mental health, school safety, crisis intervention programs and incentives for states to include youth background in the National Instant Criminal Background Verification System.
The package represents the most important new federal legislation to address armed violence since the 1994 10-year assault weapons ban expired, though it does not ban any weapons and is a far cry from what Democrats and polls show. that most Americans want to see.
There were a few dozen people in the Senate room before the final vote. Senators had noted that there were survivors of armed violence, relatives and groups attending to see the historic vote in the House.
The vote on the federal gun safety bill came on the same day the Supreme Court overturned a New York gun law enacted more than a century ago that imposes restrictions on carrying a concealed pistol outside. house.
The ruling highlights the conflicting political forces surrounding the issue at all levels of government, as the judiciary implements the widest expansion of gun rights in a decade, happening just when the legislature seems on the way. to Approve Its Most Important Weapons Security Package in Nearly a Decade 30 years.
A critical vote that required GOP support
The arms security bill had taken another step toward approval in the Senate earlier in the day after a critical vote managed to move the measure forward with Republican support.
The vote was 65 to 34, with 15 Republican senators joining Democrats to break the obstruction. The same 15 Republican senators who voted to break the obstruction voted in favor of final approval of the measure.
The GOP’s “yes” votes include the 10 Senate Republicans who signed an initial security framework agreement: John Cornyn of Texas, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Roy Blunt of Missouri, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan. Collins of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mitt Romney of Utah and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. Four of the original 10 Republican supporters are retiring this year: Blunt, Burr, Portman and Toomey.
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and West Virginia leader Shelley Moore, who are at the helm of the GOP, also voted to break the obstruction to the bill.
Other notable GOP votes include Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Todd Young of Indiana, who were not among the 10 Republicans who were initially signed to support the framework and are running for re-election in November.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday afternoon after the bill was passed in the Senate that the House will take it on Friday.
The legislation met after the tragic and recent mass shootings at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, which was located in a predominantly black neighborhood.
A bipartisan group of negotiators set to work in the Senate and introduced the legislative text on Tuesday. The bill, entitled Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, was passed by Republican Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Democratic Senators Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
Lawmakers rushed to pass the bill before marching for the July 4 recess.
The fact that the text of the bill has been finalized, and that the legislation now seems about to be passed in the Senate, is a great victory for the negotiators who met to reach an agreement.
The bipartisan effort seemed to be on thin ice after several key points emerged, but eventually the negotiators were able to resolve the issues that arose. The deal marks a rare case of compromise between party lines on one of Washington’s most controversial issues: a feat in today’s highly polarized political environment.
Reaching a bipartisan agreement on major arms legislation has been notoriously difficult for lawmakers in recent years, even in the face of countless mass shootings across the country.
“For too long political games in Washington on both sides of the aisle have halted progress toward protecting our communities and keeping families safe,” Sinema said Wednesday in a Senate speech.
“Guilt and the trade of political attacks became the path of least resistance, but the communities in our country that have experienced senseless violence deserve better than Washington politics as usual,” the Democrat said. ‘Arizona. “Our communities deserve the commitment of their leaders to do the hard work of putting politics aside, identifying issues that need to be resolved, and working together to achieve common ground and common goals.”
Key provisions of the bill
The bill includes $ 750 million to help states implement and execute crisis intervention programs. The money can be used to implement and manage red-flag programs, which can temporarily prevent people in crisis from accessing firearms through a court order, and for other crisis intervention programs such as the courts of justice. mental health, drug courts and veterans courts.
This bill closes a gap in the domestic violence law – the “boyfriend’s loophole” – that bans people who were convicted of domestic violence offenses against married couples, or couples with whom they shared children or couples with whom they cohabited, from having guns. The old statutes did not include intimate couples who could not live together, be married, or share children. Now, the law will prohibit having a gun on anyone who is convicted of a felony of domestic violence against someone with a “continued serious relationship of a romantic or intimate nature.”
The law is not retroactive. However, it will allow those convicted of domestic violence offenses to restore their gun rights after five years if they have not committed other crimes.
The bill encourages states to include youth records in the National System for Instant Verification of Criminal Records with Subsidies, as well as to implement a new protocol to verify these records.
The bill prosecutes people who sell weapons as primary sources of income, but who have previously avoided registering as federally licensed firearms dealers. It also increases funding for mental health and school safety programs.
GOP divided on the bill
There has been a split between some prominent members of the GOP leadership in the House and Senate.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell had said he supported the bipartisan arms deal. But top House Republican leaders have opposed the bill and are urging its members to vote “no,” even as the Senate moves toward passing the bill this week.
But even with House Republican leaders opposing the bill, there are already some House Republicans who have indicated they plan to vote on it, and the Democratic-controlled House is expected to pass. legislation once passed in the Senate.
“While more is needed, this package must be quickly turned into law to help protect our children,” Pelosi said in a statement.
This story and headline have been updated with additional news on Thursday.
CNN’s Daniella Diaz and Tierney Sneed contributed.