[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8691]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            TIME FOR ACTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Dold) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DOLD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because thoughts and prayers are 
not enough. It is time for action.
  The hateful terrorist attack targeting America's LGBT community in 
Orlando is another reminder to come together and work across party 
lines to root out terrorism, prevent gun violence, and put an end to 
bigotry of all kinds. An attack on one American is an attack on all of 
us.
  We cannot allow partisanship to define this debate. We must take 
decisive and united actions to ensure that nothing like the attacks on 
Orlando, Paris, Newtown, or San Bernardino ever happen again.
  Congress should immediately move forward and pass the Denying 
Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act. This commonsense 
bill would prohibit suspected terrorists from possessing guns or 
explosives. Keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of people who 
wish to do our country harm is a solution that we should all be able to 
get behind.
  The hateful attack in Orlando also reminds us once more of the 
growing threat of ISIS-inspired radical Islamic terrorist on U.S. soil 
is real and cannot be ignored or downplayed.
  Congress must reassert leadership in the fight against ISIS by 
passing legislation to hold the President accountable for developing a 
comprehensive plan to destroy ISIS.
  Through congressional oversight hearings, we must also ensure that 
Federal agencies and local law enforcement are effectively 
communicating with each other to identify international and homegrown 
terror threats through both traditional security approaches and social 
media.
  Internationally, Congress must act to cut off sources of funding to 
other radical Islamic terror groups by restoring crippling sanctions on 
Iran. The recent agreement, which, frankly, shipped billions of dollars 
to the world's largest state sponsor of terror while helping finance 
organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, is simply unacceptable.
  At home, we cannot allow the tired, partisan bickering to distract us 
from the difficult but necessary work of preventing gun violence. We 
need to bridge the partisan divide and put the best interests of our 
country before politics.
  A good first step is the legislation that I helped introduce with 
former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords to require universal background 
checks on firearm purchases. The vast majority of the American people 
support this commonsense idea, and it is past time Congress moves 
forward with this proposal that will keep more people safe.
  We also need to improve communications so that local law enforcement 
is notified when someone attempts to purchase a gun and fails a 
required background check. My colleague, Congressman Mike Quigley, 
introduced a commonsense bill to make this fix, which I strongly 
support.
  Other important efforts to prevent gun violence include my bill with 
Congresswoman Debbie Dingell to prevent domestic abusers from being 
able to purchase weapons. This proposal would help, again, prohibit 
firearm trafficking used to evade background checks, and also, a long-
overdue increase in mental health resources.
  In short, there are numerous commonsense proposals, Mr. Speaker, that 
will keep guns out of the hands of those that should not have them 
while protecting our Second Amendment rights. It is time that we take 
action.
  Mr. Speaker, there is no quick and easy solution to all the problems 
underscored by the Orlando terrorist attack, but if we are able to set 
aside partisan differences and unite in the best interests of our 
Nation, we can make serious strides in the ongoing efforts to keep 
Americans safe and prevent future atrocities.

                          ____________________