House Speaker Paul Ryan.

WASHINGTON – The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, under
mounting pressure to advance gun-control legislation, will vote next week on a
measure to keep guns out of the hands of people on government terrorism watch
lists.

House Speaker Paul Ryan announced the plan in a conference call
with lawmakers. Democrats, who staged a 25-hour sit-in on the House floor last
week to push for gun control following the mass shooting in Orlando, said they
were wary that Republican leadership would opt for a watered-down measure
backed by the National Rifle Association.

Republican leadership aides declined to provide details. One
said the package was still being worked out.

Following the June 12 shooting that killed 49 people at a gay
nightclub in Orlando, Florida, gun-control proponents on Capitol Hill grew more
optimistic about prospects for advancing legislation in an election year when
Republicans could lose control of the Senate.

“We are going to get something done this year, I
predict,” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid told reporters at a news
conference. “I think we’re going to take a bite out of the NRA.”

Reid said he was hopeful for a bill introduced by Republican
Senator Susan Collins of Maine, and a bipartisan House companion bill backed by
Republicans including Representative Carlos Curbelo of Florida, that would
prevent gun sales to anyone on the government’s “No Fly List” for
terrorism suspects or the “Selectee List” of people subject to extra
screening at airports.

The Collins and Curbelo bill allows would-be buyers to appeal
and requires a court decision within 14 days.

A source on Ryan’s conference call said the speaker said the
House would act next week on a gun measure as part of a larger terrorism
package, calling the gun restriction “just common sense.”

Representative Bob Dold of Illinois, a Republican backer of the
Curbelo bill, urged Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to opt for
the bipartisan measure before Thursday’s announcement, an aide said.

But Democrats speculated that Republicans may instead choose a
bill introduced last December by Representative Lee Zeldin of New York, which
would give government officials three days to decide whether a gun sale should
be blocked. Democrats say that timetable is insufficient.

It is the companion bill to a Senate measure introduced by
Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn of Texas, which failed in the Senate last
week.

Drew Hammill, an aide to House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi,
said the Zeldin bill would not address Democrats’ demands for gun control,
adding: “This is the NRA bill.”

Democrats have vowed to keep pressing for gun control when they
return to Washington from their U.S. Independence Day break next week. They
said further sit-ins remained an option.

Last
week’s sit-in infuriated Republicans. Ryan said Democrats wanted to focus on
guns instead of terrorism.