Democratic sit-in no ‘publicity stunt,’ Loebsack says

CEDAR RAPIDS - Calling Democrats' protest on the U.S. House floor for more than 24 hours a publicity stunt was 'demeaning,” according to Rep. Dave Loebsack, who participated in the unprecedented sit-in that ended Thursday morning.

GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan 'way off base” to characterize the sit-in as a political stunt and a fundraiser, the Iowa City Democrat said.

'This was anything but a political stunt,” Loebsack said. 'It was serious business, business the American people want us to attend to.”

Besides, he said, 'the take-away shouldn't be the act itself and what happened over the last 24 hours, as much as the hope that what was said and what was done will have some effect in the larger society. The American people are demanding we take action.”

Loebsack and other members of the Democratic minority conducted the sit-in to pressure Ryan and other Republicans to hold votes on gun-control measures.

'All we want is a vote,” he said. 'I think we have to have expanded background checks and I think the no-fly, no-buy legislation makes a lot of sense.”

So for more than 24 hours, Democrats sat in the House well to call attention to their demand for a vote on those bills. Loebsack said he had meetings to attend so wasn't there for the entire sit-in.

Although Democratic groups, including Monica Vernon's campaign in Iowa's 1st District, sent out fundraising appeals referencing the sit-in, Loebsack denied it was done to raise campaign cash.

'That I haven't even thought about,” he said. 'That's something entirely different from what we are talking about here. We want action on these bills.”

He hopes sit-ins won't become standard practice in the House.

'I hope we have regular order, that we bring bills to the floor that should be brought to the floor, especially bill like these that have such overwhelming support,” he said.

The House is adjourned for its annual Fourth of July recess and will return to session July 5.