GOP attempt to break Dem sit-in causes uproar in US House
An attempt by Republican lawmakers in the US House of Representatives to end a Democratic sit-in on the House floor has sparked an uproar.
A group of some 25 Democratic lawmakers, led by Georgia Representative John Lewis, staged an ongoing sit-in on the House floor Wednesday morning, asking the Republican-led House to vote on a bipartisan gun control bill in the wake of the country’s deadliest shooting in Orlando, Florida.
The so-called "no fly, no gun" bill would ban suspected terrorists on the government’s no-fly list from buying guns.
However, the GOP members tried to break the move at around 10 PM, by calling an unrelated vote to override a presidential veto of a measure blocking the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule.
House Republican leaders had scheduled the voting for an earlier time in the day but were forced to postpone it due to the Democratic sit-in.
The lawmakers continued their protest during the vote, shouting, “No bill, no break!”
They were accompanied by many other Democrats who held up sheets of paper with the names of gun violence victims on them.
The continued protest prevented the Republicans from employing a voice vote, forcing them to use a roll call tally on the measure instead. But in the end, the party failed to claim the two-thirds majority needed to override Obama’s veto.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, who could barely be heard over the noise during the process, ordered the House back into recess after the vote.
The Democrats have indicated that the sit-in will go on even if more votes are called by Republicans. Some of them even had pillows and blankets on hand.
The House reconvened at around midnight to pass a $1.1 billion House-Senate measure to combat the Zika virus, approving it by a 239-171 vote.
The move by the Democratic lawmakers came after four bipartisan gun control measures failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome opposition from Republican lawmakers on Monday, days after the June 12 mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse Club that killed 49 people and injured 53 others.
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