Tribute to affirm First Amendment as democratic ‘bedrock’

The House on Wednesday will offer a bipartisan tribute to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), with leaders of both parties planning to praise her service, pray for her recovery and remember the slain victims of Saturday’s mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) unveiled a four-page resolution Tuesday that honors Giffords for her “service and leadership,” denounces the killing of six people in Arizona and reaffirms the First Amendment rights of assembly and petition as “bedrock principles” of American democracy.

{mosads}The House is expected to approve the resolution before President Obama speaks at a memorial service for the victims in Arizona on Wednesday evening.

The resolution “condemns in the strongest possible terms the horrific attack.” It also recognizes each of the 20 victims of the shooting and “applauds the bravery and quick thinking” of the people who tackled the gunman and potentially prevented more casualties.

Even as some lawmakers blame overheated and violent rhetoric for contributing to the massacre, the House will underscore its commitment to the First Amendment and to hashing out political differences at the ballot box and not in the streets.

The resolution “reaffirms the bedrock principle of democracy and representative government, which is memorialized in the First Amendment of the Constitution and which Rep. Gabrielle Giffords herself read in the Hall of the House of Representatives on Jan. 6, 2011, of ‘the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for redress of grievances.’”

It adds that the House “stands firm in its belief in a democracy in which all can participate and in which intimidation and threats of violence cannot silence the voices of any American.”

The resolution will be submitted by Boehner and “reflects input of leadership from both sides of the aisle, as well as Giffords’s office,” a Boehner spokesman said. 

Both Boehner and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) are expected to pay tribute to Giffords. Members of the Arizona delegation and other lawmakers will attend the memorial service with Obama.

Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has not announced when the repeal will return, but several GOP lawmakers and aides indicated to The Hill that they expect the House to vote on the bill next week before Democrats leave for a retreat on Thursday.

Asked about the legislation by The Hill, Boehner deferred to Cantor. Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the majority leader, reiterated a statement he issued on Monday that “the legislative schedule will be announced at a later date, but Congress has a duty to move forward and do the people’s business at the appropriate time, and will do so.” He added, however: “We have an obligation to do the things we said we would do.”

A GOP leadership aide said the “House is likely to resume its normal business next week, with a schedule to be determined in the coming days.”

The politics of healthcare repeal will be fraught for the GOP as lawmakers return to an issue that spurred the kind of incendiary rhetoric that has been roundly denounced in the aftermath of the attack on Giffords.

“Now you want to revisit all that?” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) told The Hill. “Having invested so much in distorting and exaggerating the rhetoric of healthcare reform, the opponents of reform now find themselves on the horns of a dilemma.”

Yet newly empowered Republicans are itching to lay down their legislative marker in the dwindling time left before Obama’s State of the Union address on Jan. 25. The GOP has already seen its agenda disrupted by the Arizona tragedy, and a further postponement of the healthcare repeal vote would leave it with barely anything to show for its three weeks at the House helm.

On Tuesday, Boehner referenced the shooting in a letter to Obama, formally inviting him to address Congress on Jan. 25.

“Recent events have reminded us of the imperfect nature of our representative democracy, but also how much we cherish the ideal that our government exists to serve the people,” Boehner wrote. “Even in the wake of tragedy, we must never waiver from our obligation to carry out their will and provide solutions to keep moving our nation forward.”