Tucson shooting alters congressional agenda

By Karoun Demirjian

Monday, Jan. 10, 2011 | 9:46 a.m.

WASHINGTON - This weekend's shooting in Tucson that killed six and wounded 14, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, hasn't just shaken Washington emotionally -- it's also shaken up the congressional agenda.

The new Republican leadership in the House had planned an ambitious agenda for the first days of the 112th Congress, following up its adoption of new budget rules last week with a vote to repeal the health care bill this week.

But on Sunday, Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor sent out a press release that leadership had changed its plans on account of Giffords' shooting.

"In consultation with the Speaker and the Democratic Leadership, I have postponed all previously-scheduled legislation for the coming week to accommodate any action needed in light of yesterday's tragic events in Arizona," Cantor said.

The House is expected to consider a resolution honoring Giffords, a Democrat, as well as a federal judge and congressional staffer who died, on Wednesday morning.

But health care isn't the only policy area that's likely to change. Gun control, an issue that cuts to the heart of the partisan divide, may also resurface as a subject of debate. New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn McCarthy plans to file a bill to limit the availability and accessibility of the high-capacity ammunition clips that the shooting suspect, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, allegedly used.

The Glock 19 9mm semi-automatic handgun that Loughner allegedly fired would have been illegal under the assault weapons ban passed in 1994, but Congress allowed that ban to expire in 2004.

Rep. Robert Brady of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, plans to file a bill to make inciting violence against a congressional or federal official a federal crime -- a move that seems directly motivated by crosshairs used by Sarah Palin's website to identify 20 congressional "targets" in 2010, a list that included Giffords. Palin's organization has since taken the website down.

Lawmakers are also reportedly in discussions about whether it will be necessary to step up security detail on Capitol Hill or closer to home.

In the last few years, several lawmakers have stopped holding town hall meetings of the sort that Giffords was conducting Saturday because of increasingly angry and sometimes violent crowds, especially when the topic of discussion was health care. Death threats to lawmakers are also on the rise: according to FBI statistics, they tripled in 2010.

But the most marked political change that may come from the Giffords tragedy is one of conduct, more than content.

While some lawmakers emerged from the 2010 midterms speaking about "compromise" and "cooperation," little was apparent in the opening of the 112th Congress.

Giffords' record begs a different legacy. A Democrat, she votes against her party about 40 percent of the time -- a high level of independence for someone who was targeted in the 2010 midterms as a "puppet" for top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi. (Last week, Giffords didn't vote for Pelosi for leader, calling out a vote for former civil rights activist and current Georgia Rep. John Lewis instead.)

With lawmakers now openly worried about the consequences of the escalating war of words, what they will do differently in Washington to contain the threat of attacks still remains to be seen.

But whether Giffords' tragedy inspires a new focus on responsibility in political rhetoric or inspires a refreshed culture of civility in Congress, it seems given that there will be some takeaway from the shootings. As Speaker John Boehner put it in the statement he released after news of the shooting broke Saturday: "an attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve."