Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., opposed a school safety bill, infuriating Republicans.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., requested that the Luke and Alex School Safety Act be passed by unanimous consent after a horrific mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school that slaughtered 19 students and two instructors.
The bill, which is labeled after Parkland, Florida, victims of gun violence Luke Hoyer and Alex Schachter, would need the Department of Homeland Security to create a “Federal Clearinghouse on School Safety Best Practices” for use by state and local education and law enforcement agencies, institutions of higher education, health professionals, and the general public.
DHS would also be required to “collect clearinghouse data analytics, user feedback on the implementation of best practices and recommendations identified by the clearinghouse, and any evaluations conducted on these best practices and recommendations.”
With the bill’s passing, the clearinghouse, which is now accessible at SchoolSafety.gov, would become law.
Johnson’s plea was met with opposition from Schumer, who claimed on Twitter that the law “could see more guns in schools.”
“The truth: There were officers at the school in Texas,” Schumer posted. “The shooter got past them. We need real solutions—We will vote on gun legislation starting with the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act.”
Schumer stated on the Senate floor that the bill might be considered if Republicans agree to discuss the domestic terrorism bill. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Johnson remarked that it is “a sad day for the United States Senate.”
Later, Johnson tweeted: “Not surprising that the Democrat leader would lie about the bill he blocked that parents of Parkland victims have been trying to pass for years. Dems aren’t looking for solutions, they want wedge issues that they hope will keep them in power. Sick.”
Senator Rick Scott of Florida, who co-sponsored the bill, called Schumer a “liar and a hack.”
“The truth: Schumer blocked a bipartisan bill that makes the school safety clearinghouse schoolsafety.gov permanent because radical left wing activists oppose it,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who also co-sponsored the bill.
Meanwhile, the Senate will vote on whether to move the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which was enacted by the House last week in the aftermath of the ten-person mass shooting in Buffalo.
The bill would create “an interagency task force to analyze and combat white supremacist and neo-Nazi infiltration of the uniformed services and federal law enforcement agencies,” as well as require the DHS, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to jointly report on domestic terrorism.