Countering Terrorist Radicalization Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Mississippi for yielding, and I thank him for his tremendous leadership to keep our homeland secure.

I come to the floor with the deepest sympathy for those lost in Orlando. Of course, all of our prayers and thoughts are with their families.

Earlier this week, we had a moment of silence, another moment of silence; silence, which was followed by silence, silence, silence. No action.

Today, on this floor, we are taking up legislation which is the legislative equivalent of silence. We are putting some warmed-over stew bills that have passed the House, combined in one bill, once again, to go forward. But we are not taking the action necessary, action that has bipartisan support overwhelmingly in the country and has sufficient support in this House to be passed.

I beseech our Republican colleagues to join us in the no fly, no buy legislation, which 87 percent of the public overwhelmingly-- Republicans, Independents, and even NRA members--support. It has support in our country. It has understanding in our country. The only place that it runs into trouble is in the House of Representatives.

The Senate has said now that they will promise a vote after a substantial and most remarkable filibuster on the part of Senator Chris Murphy all day yesterday and into the night.

The American people saw what the challenge was in getting something done in Congress. He was promised a vote. I hope that we can have a vote in the House on two bills that are overwhelmingly supported by the public and have bipartisan support in the House.

Of course, we have the one bill: no fly, no buy. That means if you are on the no-fly list, you cannot buy a gun.

In addition to that, we have the bill that has, by consensus, been put together for sensible, reasonable background checks. That means, no matter what the weapon is, unless you can pass a background check, you can't buy it, whether it is a pistol or an AK-47.

Shamefully, the assault weapon ban has expired. There are those in our midst who would like to remove the sunset from that bill, and that is another conversation.

Right now, today, we are asking for two things. One, no fly, no buy. Two, the Peter King of New York and Mike Thompson of California--a Republican and a Democrat--cosponsored bills which would pass this House, if given a vote.

I have seen some criticism on the part of the Republican leadership in the House of those who have tired of doing moments of silence. I, myself, think that it is appropriate for us to do that, but it is no substitute for action. We have to question the sincerity of it, if we mourn and don't act.

We carry the names of these young people who were killed in Orlando in our hearts. It is clearly a hate crime. It is the one place where we see very clearly where gun safety and homeland security come together. Whatever the percentage of motivation was--terrorism, and the other, a hate crime--on the part of the perpetrator, it doesn't matter. What matters is that it was an assault on our homeland security. And what matters is that it was a hate crime motivated in this pub where many LGBT community members were gathered.

Let's lower the temperature on our interactions with each other. We have said over and over again: Here we go with another moment of silence. If we were real about it, if we were sincere about it, we would act upon it. Clearly, we are all complicit, as long as we have moments of silence and no legislation.

We are not a commemorative body. Yes, we have our resolutions and moments of silence, but we are a legislative body, and we are supposed to provide solutions. We are supposed to work together as much as possible in a bipartisan way for those solutions. We are supposed to be a reflection, a representative of the American people.

The American people are so far ahead of us in terms of common sense-- commonsense legislation: if you are on the no fly list, you can't buy a gun; no fly, no buy--and common sense in saying that we want to have reasonable, commonsense background checks, which has bipartisan support in the House. I say it over and over again.

We have said we are Paris; we are Orlando. But what are we? We are doing nothing. It would be the equivalent of somebody who is very sick and the doctor says: I am going to give you a get well card, but I am not going to give you any antidote for the pain or the problem that you have.

And this is what we have become, words, not deeds; words, not action.

The Gospel of James--I don't know if Mr. Clyburn, when he spoke earlier, spoke about James, the Book of James, act deeds, not words. And we are not even words. We are silent. We are silent.

So I beseech my colleagues to listen to the American people, to understand the pain. And this happens so frequently. Since Orlando, 100 people have been shot in gun violence across our country--that was as of yesterday, may be more by this morning.

So it is not just about the mass murders, as appalling as they are and how strongly they hit home; it is about what is happening in the streets of our country on a regular basis.

As I said, and I say this, I cannot see how, with all the good intentions of silence and the rest of it, that this Congress can be a handmaiden of the National Rifle Association and the Gun Owners of America. We are here to represent the people, and we should be doing that.

Again, this is heartbreaking. Newtown was heartbreaking. Aurora was heartbreaking. Columbine was heartbreaking. The reference our colleague made earlier to assault on our military facilities is heartbreaking. The assault on a Planned Parenthood clinic is heartbreaking. It is not right. This isn't how we debate, discuss, disagree, come to solutions, not with guns.

We all respect the Second Amendment. We all respect the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms, but that doesn't mean in an unfettered way, by people who have no business having them because of their orientation. Let's have background checks to check that.

We can work together on the no fly, no buy in terms of how people are informed, how law enforcement is informed across the board. But we cannot go down a path that has been suggested by some who say, okay, let's do that; now take it to court. Well, by the time you take it to court, more people will die, just as Mr. Clyburn stated, as we are observing the June 17, 1-year anniversary of the South Carolina massacre. If you are not denied in 3 days, then you are cleared, when they had a technical error that cleared somebody who should not have been cleared.

So let's make it right, but let's do something. Let's act on the values that we share to protect and defend the American people. That's our first responsibility in terms of national security, in terms of homeland security, in terms of community and personal security.

Let's not use these bills that we are taking up, once again, as an excuse, as if we did something. No, we didn't do anything more. We are just trying to make it look as if we did, and that is really incriminating the Congress of the United States, when we know what to do, we have bipartisan support to do it.

So I beseech our colleagues to join together, in a nonpartisan way, to do the right thing, exercise common sense on behalf of the American people. Again, we are Orlando.

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