Yahoo News US congress scraps Obama rules on on background checks for gun ownership
The Republican-controlled congress on Thursday scrapped Obama-era rules on guns and environment, counting on a new ally in the White House to help reverse years of what the GOP calls excessive regulation.
The house of representatives backed a resolution doing away with extended background checks for gun purchases by some Social Security recipients with mental disabilities voting 235-180. The measure awaits senate action.
The vote is part of an effort to repeal a handful of regulations issued in president Barack Obama's final months and represents the first steps toward strengthening gun ownership under president Donald Trump.
The background checks rule established the criteria the Social Security Administration will follow when forwarding names for the criminal background check system.
Those fitting the criteria have a mental disorder such as extreme anxiety and schizophrenia so severe that they cannot work and need a representative to manage their benefits. The administration projected that the regulation would affect about 75,000 beneficiaries.
Gun rights groups and advocates for the disabled supported the repeal effort.
"The Obama administration's rule is discriminatory and deprives law-abiding Americans of their constitutional rights," Bob Goodlatte, the house judiciary committee chairman, said in a statement. "There is no evidence suggesting that those receiving disability benefits from the Social Security Administration are a threat to public safety."
"Once an unelected bureaucrat unfairly adds these folks to the federal background check system, they are no longer able to exercise their Second Amendment right," he said.
After the 2012 school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, Mr Obama directed the Justice Department to provide guidance to agencies regarding information they are obligated to report to the background check system.
In Newtown, 20 children and six educators were shot to death when a gunman entered the Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. The gunman had earlier killed his mother inside their home, and he used a gun and ammunition that she had purchased. His mental health problems have been extensively reported since the shooting.
Democrats said Republicans were doing the bidding of the National Rifle Association (NRA), which opposed the Social Security Administration's rule.
"These are not people just having a bad day," Democratic representative Mike Thompson said. "These are not people simply suffering from depression or anxiety or agoraphobia. These are people with a severe mental illness who can't hold any kind of job or make any decisions about their affairs, so the law says very clearly they shouldn't have a firearm."
The NRA said overturning the regulation will protect a broad class of vulnerable citizens from government overreach. And the American Civil Liberties Union agreed, telling lawmakers that a disability should not constitute grounds for the automatic denial of any right or privilege, including gun ownership.
Republicans are employing a rarely used tool to roll back some of the rules issued in the final months of Obama's tenure. The Congressional Review Act provides a temporary window for a simple majority of both chambers to invalidate a rule. Mr Trump would have to sign the disapproval measure for a regulation to be deemed invalid.
The law also prevents the executive branch from imposing substantially similar regulations in the future.
Coal mining rule also scrapped
In a separate resolution the senate gave final approval to a measure eliminating a rule to prevent coal mining debris from being dumped into nearby streams.
The Senate's 54-45 vote sends the repeal of the stream protection rule to Mr Trump, who is expected to sign it.
Republicans and some Democrats say the coal-mining rule could eliminate thousands of coal-related jobs and ignores dozens of federal, state and local regulations already in place.
The interior department, which announced the rule in December, said that it would protect 6,000 miles of streams and 52,000 acres of forests, preventing coal mining debris from being dumped into nearby waters.
Rules on fracking, federal contracting and other issues also are in the cross-hairs as the GOP moves to void a host of regulations finalised during Mr Obama's last months in office.
Mitch McConnell, the senate majority leader, called the stream rule "an attack against coal miners and their families" and said it would have threatened coal jobs and caused major damage to communities in Kentucky and other coal-producing states.
"The legislation we passed today will help stop this disastrous rule and bring relief to coal miners and their families," Mr McConnell said.
Democrats called the vote an attack on clean water and a clear win for big coal-mining companies and other polluters.
On the coal mining vote, senator Susan Collins of Maine was the sole Republican to oppose the repeal measure, which was supported by four Democrats: Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Claire McCaskill of Missouri. All four face re-election next year in states Mr Trump won.
In quotes | Obama on gun control
