After a day of intense negotiations, the Senate resurrected and passed by a wide margin the "Brady bill," which imposes a nationwide waiting period of five business days for handgun purchases.
Republican leaders, who stalled the bill Friday night with a filibuster, yesterday gave in to pressure and agreed to an up-or-down vote on a slightly modified version of the original measure. The bill was approved 63 to 36, with 16 Republicans voting for passage. Eight Democrats voted against the bill. All Washington-area senators supported the measure.
The new version of the bill would phase out the waiting period after four years instead of the five years called for in the House version. But the Senate version gives the attorney general the prerogative to extend the waiting period an additional 12 months.
The House and Senate plan to try to reconcile differences in the bill on Sunday, enabling Congress to win final passage of the legislation before it adjourns for the year.
The Senate already has passed a $22 billion crime package that would ban further production or sale or additional purchase of semiautomatic assault weapons, which are often used in street killings, and bar the sale of handguns to juveniles and limit them from possessing the weapons. A new type of armor-piercing bullets would be banned.
But it is the Brady bill -- named after James Brady, the former White House press secretary who was seriously wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt against President Ronald Reagan -- that has been a cause celebre for handgun control proponents since the mid-1980s.
Throughout the day, pressure mounted on Republicans not to allow the Senate to adjourn without passing the symbolically important measure. Public support for the bill is high and it has the virtually unanimous backing of law enforcement.
Supporters of the bill said the Republicans buckled under the weight of public pressure, ultimately getting very little in compromise. Republican opponents had hoped to force Democrats to agree to a provision that would make the five-day waiting period preempt tougher waiting periods imposed by some state and local governments. But the Senate already had rejected such an amendment Friday night.
"They were looking for some way to rationalize changing their objections," said Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio). But he added: "The American people indicated their displeasure. The telephones were ringing. And the responsibility was on the doorsteps of the Republicans in the United States Senate."
Republicans tried to put the best face on their compromise, saying the bill contained a number of lesser-known provisions that are more significant than the waiting period -- such as making it a federal crime to steal firearms from those licensed to sell them and increasing fees for federal firearms licenses. But Senate Minority Whip Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) acknowledged that as many as eight Republican senators had urged their leaders to work out an agreement with the Democratic leadership so they could cast a vote on the measure. On Friday night, Brady supporters failed by three votes to break off a GOP-led filibuster.
"We finally decided . . . let's get the Brady bill behind us," said Senate Republican Leader Robert J. Dole (Kan.).
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said emphatically he would fight to keep the five-year life of the law and not push the Senate version of the bill in a conference with House negotiators. "The public and the Congress have spoken unequivocally, and I don't care what a minority wants."
Under the bill, prospective handgun buyers would have to wait five bunsiness day while police check their backgrounds for criminal violations. The states would receive $200 million in federal assistance to improve criminal record-keeping, leading to a nationwide computerized system for instant checking of records. After the national system is sufficiently operational, the waiting period would be phased out. About half the states have waiting periods or require a background check for gun purchases.
Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), the chief sponsor of the measure in the House, called the Senate's action "a great step" but added: "The House is going to have to clear up the debris {of added Senate provisions}." He was speaking of seven pages of provisions, many of which are endorsed by Republican opponents of the bill.
Earlier, some proponents accused a "small group of extremists" of holding the bill hostage and predicted opponents would pay a political price at home. But there also was some Monday morning quarterbacking about the legislative strategy of steering the bill to passage.
It is, both supporters and opponents acknowledge, a special bill because it is named after Brady. Brady, his wife, Sarah, and the handgun control lobby that has pushed for enactment of the measure since the mid-1980s wanted a separate bill instead of attaching it to the crime package.
"It was a miscalculation," Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), a supporter of the Brady bill, said before the vote. "We could have done it in the crime bill."
"As a strategic matter, rarely do you forgo an opportunity to attach your piece of legislation to something that's headed for the president's desk," said an aide to Metzenbaum, who favored attaching it to the crime package. But the aide added: "This bill is unique in that it is personified in the Bradys, and that is a very powerful symbol."
But Biden, after the vote, defended the strategy of keeping the bill separate, saying he wanted "the clear, cold disinfectant of light shone on all those who voted no, because they can't stand the heat."
Democrats had said Republicans would be making a political mistake by not allowing the bill to be brought up before Congress adjourns.
The Bradys and their House proponents tried to turn up the heat on recalcitrant lawmakers by calling for the Senate to stay in session until a bill was passed. "How many children must die while the Senate runs away for Thanksgiving?" Schumer said.
At a news conference, the Bradys and Schumer took aim at Dole, who two years ago was coauthor of a bipartisan version of the Brady bill that passed with 67 votes. The Bradys said the holiday period would be a time when more children and law enforcement officials would be at risk of gun violence.
Bill McIntyre, spokesman for the National Rifle Association, said that while the lobby had hoped to win preemption of state laws, the four-year life of the law "makes a bad bill better."