After a week delayed by tragedy, House set to shift back into gear

Delayed a week by the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), House Republicans are ready to get back to business.

Although the Arizona tragedy spurred a host of
proposals tackling gun control, congressional security and mental-health
reform — issues directly related to the shooting — GOP leaders have
brushed aside those concerns to focus instead on the bread-and-butter
campaign promises that helped propel them to the majority in November.

{mosads}”The Pledge to America is our plan,” Kevin Smith,
spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), told The New York
Times Thursday, “and our immediate focus is on addressing the top
priorities of the American people, creating jobs, cutting spending and
reforming the way Congress works.”

The strategy is indication that, while the
assassination attempt on Giffords might have prompted a weeklong
breather from the bitter legislative fights the new Congress has in
store, GOP leaders have no plans to let the temporary outpouring of
bipartisanship divert them from the course they plotted beforehand.

Indeed, the House on Tuesday is scheduled to take up
legislation repealing the Democrats’ recent overhaul of the nation’s
healthcare system. In sharp contrast to the unified gestures of prayer
and mourning that marked the last week, the repeal bill — and the seven
hours of debate scheduled around it — will highlight the deep
ideological differences between the parties. Though a week delayed, the
bill is no less partisan than it was before the shooting.

“As the White House noted, it is important for
Congress to get back to work, and to that end we will resume thoughtful
consideration of the healthcare bill next week,” Brad Dayspring,
spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) explained
Thursday. “Americans have legitimate concerns about the cost of the new
healthcare law and its effect on the ability to grow jobs in our
country.

“It is our expectation,” Dayspring added, “that the
debate will continue to focus on those substantive policy differences
surrounding the new law.”

Last weekend’s
shootings — which killed six, including U.S. District Judge John Roll,
and injured 13 others, including Giffords — shocked the nation and
provoked a host of related reforms over the past week.
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Frank
Lautenberg (D-N.J.), for instance, are crafting a bill to prohibit
high-capacity ammunition magazines like those allegedly used by Jared
Lee Loughner, the 22-year-old who’s been charged in the rampage.

Rep.
Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) is calling for an increase in congressional
budgets to increase security.

Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) wants the House
gallery to be shielded in plexiglass. And Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.), the
chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, intends to introduce
legislation prohibiting people from carrying guns within 1,000 feet of
members of Congress.

Unlike another recent high-profile shooting —
the 2007 rampage that killed 33 people at Virginia Tech — congressional
leaders this time around are deflecting all calls to respond to the
tragedy with reform legislation.

The Virginia Tech massacre
led Congress to enact a bipartisan law designed to keep guns out of the
hands of those suffering from mental illness.
Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.), co-chairwoman of the
Congressional Mental Health Caucus, said last week that the Arizona
shooting will cause lawmakers to revisit that law.

“How
do we allow people to be assured that nobody who is unstable gets a hold
of ammunition and guns?” Napolitano said in a phone interview. “I’m
sure we’ll touch upon it.”

But even Capitol Hill’s staunchest gun-control advocates aren’t holding their breath for reforms in the 112th Congress.

“Any
bill that I would offer wouldn’t see the light of day — it wouldn’t
even get through the committee,” said Rep. James Moran (D-Va.),
explaining why he’s not proposing any reforms in the wake of the
shooting. “Why do we have to cower in the face of the gun lobby? We’ve
lost ground.”

The House healthcare repeal bill, scheduled for a Wednesday
vote, is expected to pass the House, but stands almost no chance of
being considered by the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Less
than a week after that partisan repeal vote, President Obama will
deliver his State of the Union address before the Congress. In a show of
comity and bipartisanship, leaders from both parties are urging mixed
seating during the speech.

On Sunday, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) are going to sit together during the address.