2020 could be a headache for Congressional members from Philly region

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon talks to Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Rep. Doug Collins.

While impeachment garnered the most headlines in 2019, the region’s Democrats say last year ended on a high note that they hope carries into this year…

By Matt Laslo

A new, historic Congress came into Washington at the start of 2019 ready to get to work. While they eventually did, they also arrived in a Washington that was largely shuttered by a government shutdown.

“It has been intense,” said U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, a Democrat who represents a district centered in Delaware County.

Last year, she helped her party usher through a historic bill to expand background checks for gun purchases, along with another to block the Trump administration’s attempts to get people to buy cheap, catastrophic health insurance plans and not more robust everyday coverage. House Democrats even passed sweeping election reforms, including expanding early voting and reforming how districts are drawn. Still, those bills, along with more than 300 that cleared the House, have sat untouched in the Senate.

“Mitch McConnell has said repeatedly that he’s not going to do anything unless the president blesses it. The President appears to be holding up a lot of legislation and other activity that the country needs to move forward,” Scanlon said, sharing her frustration…

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