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REPS. THOMPSON, ESTY, KING LEAD BIPARTISAN CALL TO END GUN RIDERS IN APPROPRIATIONS BILLS

April 21, 2016

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Reps. Mike Thompson (CA-5), chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, Elizabeth Esty (D-CT), vice-chair of the Task Force, and Peter King (R-NY) today led more than 110 of their bipartisan colleagues in calling on Speaker Paul Ryan and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to reject legislative language, or “riders”, that would block efforts to reduce and prevent gun violence in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 appropriations bills.

“These riders are nothing more than legislative tactics designed to circumvent an open debate on gun violence prevention in the House and sneak provisions into must-pass spending bills that undermine efforts to help keep guns out of dangerous hands,” said Thompson and Esty. “There is no justification for preventing scientific research into the causes of gun violence, or for restricting our ability to track and combat the spread of illegal guns.We ask our colleagues to bring forward clean, responsible spending bills, free from dangerous riders that handcuff law enforcement’s ability to reduce gun violence.”

In previous appropriations bills, gun-related riders have been added without open debate and have acted as roadblocks to reducing and preventing gun violence.

These riders have prevented law enforcement from requiring federally licensed firearm dealers to keep an inventory of their firearms, prevented law enforcement and academic institutions from using gun trace data to better understand the pattern of criminal gun transfers, and stifled scientific research into the causes of gun violence.

Thompson’s Task Force recommended that Congress should act to repeal these riders and restore funding for public safety and law enforcement initiatives aimed at reducing gun violence. The Task Force urged Congress to fund law enforcement’s efforts to reduce gun violence, while supporting federal research into the causes of gun violence.

The full text of the letter is below:

Dear Speaker Ryan and Leader Pelosi:

As the House Committee on Appropriations develops each of the twelve Fiscal Year 2017 appropriations bills, we urge that you ensure the Committee’s legislation not include harmful legislative language, or “riders,” that impact the enforcement of gun laws, the operations of Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL), or research into the causes of gun violence and how to prevent it. Gun violence reduction and prevention is an important and sensitive issue. Given the renewed national focus on gun violence prevention, now is not the time to include controversial appropriations riders that negatively impact gun laws.

Instead, such changes to gun policy must be seriously and properly considered by Congress through the regular order. This must be done in an open and transparent process where a full range of options can be frankly discussed and debated by the proper committees of authorizing jurisdiction and the entire House of the Representatives. Over the past several years, various appropriations riders related to gun policy have had unintended consequences that could have been prevented had these issues been properly and more thoroughly debated in Congress.

For example, the Tiahrt and Rehberg amendments, among others, have prevented law enforcement from requiring FFLs to keep an inventory of their firearms, prevented law enforcement and academic institutions from using gun trace data to better understand the pattern of crime gun transfers, and chilled unbiased scientific research into the causes of gun violence and the means of preventing it.

As the Fiscal Year 2017 appropriations process begins through the respective subcommittees, we urge you to support the development of legislation that is free of harmful gun-related riders. Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

Congressman Mike Thompson is proud to represent California’s 5th Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma Counties. He is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Rep. Thompson is also a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition and chairs the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Wine Caucus.

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