Engel Leads NY Delegation Letter to Speaker Ryan Calling for Support of Select Committee on Gun Violence Prevention
Congressman Eliot L. Engel, a member of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, led the New York Delegation Democrats in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan calling on him to establish a Select Committee on Gun Violence Prevention.
“The victims and families of the most recent mass shooting in Las Vegas deserve more than our thoughts and prayers,” said Congressman Engel. “They deserve to live in a country that is free from gun violence. There have been more mass shootings than there have been days so far in 2017, yet Republicans in Congress refuse to respond. Congress has a duty to protect the lives of Americans. Today, I’m joining all the Democrats in the New York Delegation to call on Speaker Ryan to address this crisis.”
All 18 House Democrats from New York signed the letter. A copy of the letter is attached and full text can be found below:
October 5, 2017
The Honorable Paul Ryan
Speaker of the House
H-232, United States Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Speaker Ryan,
As members of the New York State delegation, we write to express our dismay at the unrelenting episodes of gun violence that continue to plague our nation. It is long past time that we, as elected representatives of the people, put aside special interests and take affirmative steps to protect our fellow citizens from becoming the next victims of this ongoing tale of American heartbreak.
This weekend in Las Vegas, one man ended the lives of at least 59 people and injured another 527. This horrific act broke the record for deadliest mass shooting in our country’s history, a record that was previously set less than a year and a half ago in Orlando. Once again, families have lost loved ones and those that were injured will face a lifetime of challenges.
In the wake of yet another deadly mass shooting, Congress must not abdicate its duty to protect and defend the American people. On average 90 Americans lose their lives to gun violence every day and another 151 are treated for a gun assault in an emergency room. In 2016, guns were responsible for 371 homicides and over 10,000 violent crimes in New York.
New York has some of the strongest gun laws in the nation. But gun violence still threatens the safety of our communities and law enforcement because of easy access to firearms in states with weaker gun laws. This is an epidemic that we must address as a nation.
The debate over gun control is polarizing, but it is both possible and necessary to craft safety measures that reduce gun deaths while respecting the Second Amendment. A sensible first step towards that end is to consider and pass Representative Mike Thompson’s resolution establishing a Select Committee on Gun Violence (H. Res. 367). This resolution would establish a bipartisan Select Committee to investigate and report on the causes of mass shootings, methods to improve background checks on firearm purchases, connections between access to firearms and dangerously mentally ill individuals, federal penalties for the trafficking of firearms, loopholes that allow domestic abusers to access firearms, links between firearms and suicide, the effects of gun violence on public health, the correlation between state gun violence prevention laws and the incidence of gun violence, the importance of accurate information on gun violence, the implementation of gun violence prevention laws, and the rates of gun violence in large metropolitan areas.
As Members of Congress, we are obligated to investigate and debate the challenges that our country faces, no matter how controversial. After hundreds of thousands of gun deaths in this country, it is time to act.
Sincerely,
Eliot L. Engel
Joe Crowley
Brian Higgins
Gregory Meeks
Hakeem Jeffries
Yvette Clarke
Nita Lowey
Louise M. Slaughter
Jerrold Nadler
Carolyn B. Maloney
Adriano Espaillat
Thomas R. Suozzi
Nydia M. Velazquez
Grace Meng
Jose Serrano
Paul D. Tonko
Kathleen Rice
Sean Patrick Maloney
Members of Congress
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Engel Denounces Trump For Rolling Back Contraception Coverage
Congressman Eliot L. Engel issued the following statement on President Trump’s decision to allow employers to omit coverage for contraception from their workers’ plans:
“The Affordable Care Act increased access to affordable birth control for millions of American women. Under the ACA, insurers are required to cover birth control at no cost. We cannot roll back this progress. But that’s exactly what President Trump’s shameful new interim final rule will do.
“This interim final rule gives bosses, health plans, and schools veto power over women's health care choices by refusing to cover birth control. Curtailing access to birth control means curtailing women's ability to control their own health and bodies. It also means jeopardizing their health and economic well being.
“House Republicans continually vote to ban abortion and defund Planned Parenthood, and today’s decision by the President is just another example of the GOP’s ongoing war on women.
“Women and couples use contraceptives to have healthier pregnancies, to plan their families, and to treat conditions like endometriosis. Birth control is health care. This rule is just the latest move by the Administration and Republican-controlled Congress to roll back health care—and my fellow Democrats and I are going to fight back.”
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