President Joe Biden arrives on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, Jan. 23, 2023, in Washington. Biden’s decision to allow the FBI to search his home in Delaware last week is laying him open to fresh negative attention and embarrassment following the discovery of classified documents at his home and former office. But it's part of a legal and political calculation that aides believe will pay off in the long run as he prepares to seek reelection. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Joe Biden is again calling for gun safety legislation in the wake of several mass shootings.
Biden urged both chambers of Congress to act quickly to deliver a bill banning assault weapons to his desk. The United States has seen 39 mass shootings in the first three weeks of 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced an Assault Weapons and High-Capacity Magazine Ban in the Senate on Monday, along with legislation that would raise the purchasing age to 21.
“The constant stream of mass shootings have one common thread: they almost all involve assault weapons,” Feinstein said. “It’s time we stand up to the gun lobby and remove these weapons of war from our streets, or at the very least keep them out of the hands of young people.”
Biden supported the measures Feinstein introduced, noting a 1994 assault weapons ban he helped pass which aimed to reduce the number of mass shootings.
“In the 10 years that the Assault Weapons Ban was on the books, mass shootings went down,” Biden said in a statement. “After Republicans let the law expire in 2004 and those weapons were allowed to be sold again, mass shootings tripled.”
“Communities across America have been struck by tragedy after tragedy, including mass shootings from Colorado Springs to Monterey Park and daily acts of gun violence that do not make national headlines,” he said. “There can be no greater responsibility than to do all we can to ensure the safety of our children, our communities, and our nation.”
But, in the currently divided Congress, it is unlikely an assault weapons ban will pass.
A legislative package to end the government shutdown appears on track. A handful of Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to advance the bill after what's become a deepening disruption of federal programs and services. But hurdles remain. Senators are hopeful they can pass the package as soon as Monday and send it to the House. What’s in and out of the bipartisan deal has drawn criticism and leaves few senators fully satisfied. The legislation includes funding for SNAP food aid and other programs while ensuring backpay for furloughed federal workers. But it fails to fund expiring health care subsidies Democrats have been fighting for, pushing that debate off for a vote next month.
Sabrina Siddiqui, National Politics Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins to break down the SNAP funding delays and the human cost of the ongoing shutdown.
Arguments at the Supreme Court have concluded for the day as the justices consider President Donald Trump's sweeping unilateral tariffs in a trillion-dollar test of executive power.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without much of the economic data it typically relies on from the government. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that there were “strongly differing views” at the central bank's policy meeting about to proceed going forward.
