The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-27)

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politics & the nation

creases between 5 and 10.5 per-

cent. All were relatively small

cities with populations under

220,000 people.

The Texas cities of George-

town (pop. 75,420) and Leander

(pop. 67,124), along with Ari-

zona’s Queen Creek (pop.

66,346), led that list.

“What struck me was how

many little, small places are

among the top 15,” Frey said,

noting that such cities had rela-

tively large raw population gains,

too, considering their size. “It

says these places have been able

to capture a lot of the movers

from the cities.”

also saw the highest raw popula-

tion drop from 2020 to 2021,

losing 305,465 people, or 3.5 per-

cent of its population.

The highest percentage drop

was in San Francisco, which lost

54,813 people, or 6.3 percent of

its population. Lake Charles, La.,

saw a 5 percent drop after the

city experienced a destructive

Category 4 hurricane in August

2020. Such a rate of population
      decline in one year is nearly
      unprecedented, the bureau said.
      All but one of the 15 fastest-
      growing cities by percentage
      were in Texas, Arizona, Florida
      or Idaho, with population in-

tion estimates use administra-

tive data to calculate the figures

each year.

Washington and Alexandria,

Va., were among the 15 cities that

lost population at the highest

rates, losing 2.9 and 2.8 percent

respectively. The 2020-2021 peri-

od marks the first time the

District has lost population in a

decade and a half, with about

23,000 more people moving out

of the city than moving into it.

New York City and Chicago

showed particularly steep de-

clines; both cities lost six times

the number of residents they had

lost two years earlier. New York

demographer at the Brookings

Institution.

“Telecommuting and people

being scared to be in close prox-

imity to other people,” he ex-

plained. Population trends “may

have shifted since then, but this

is probably the peak period of

those pandemic moves.”

Between 2020 and 2021, the

U.S. population overall grew by

just 0.1 percent, a slower rate

than in any year since the na-

tion’s founding, according to

Census Bureau estimates.

It is unclear how much of the

movement from cities will be

permanent. The bureau’s popula-

raw population increases were

mostly in Texas, Arizona and

Florida, with San Antonio, Phoe-

nix and Fort Worth topping the

list.

But even large cities that grew

did so more slowly than in

previous years, the bureau

found, as the pandemic pushed

many schools and jobs online

and led city dwellers to seek

more space and cheaper hous-

ing. Immigration is down and

covid-19 has killed more than

1 million people in the United

States, but most of cities’ losses

were because of domestic migra-

tion, said William Frey, a senior

BY TARA BAHRAMPOUR

Many large U.S. cities lost
population during the first year
of the pandemic, some at nearly
unprecedented rates, according
to data released Thursday by the
Census Bureau.
The nation’s 15 largest cities
remained the same as in the
previous year, but more than half
lost residents. The cities and
towns over 50,000 people that
showed the most growth from
July 2020 to July 2021 were
clustered in the South and West,
including all of the top 15 fastest
growers. Cities with the highest

Major cities lost residents during pandemic as South, West saw gains

real way in America,” Schumer

added.

Minority Leader Mitch McCon-

nell (R-Ky.), meanwhile, said he

was “ hopeful” for a bipartisan deal

on a bill “directly related to the

facts of this awful massacre.”

But crafting a bill “directly re-

lated” to the circumstances of the

Uvalde shooting stands to be diffi-

cult. For one, those circumstances

are still not fully known. Law en-

forcement officials, for instance,

retracted previous statements

about the response to the shooting

and its timeline at a Thursday

news conference.

For another, it remains unclear

to what degree authorities knew

about the threat that gunman Sal-

vador Rolando Ramos, 18, repre-

sented to his community or

whether a more robust back-

ground check law would have pre-

vented him from purchasing the

AR-style rifle he used in Tuesday’s

attack.

Still, discussion has focused so

far on potentially expanding the

categories of gun sales that are

subject to a federal background

check — the focus of the failed

2013 effort after Newtown — or

moving toward “red flag” laws,

also known as extreme risk protec-

tion orders, that allow authorities

to keep guns away from troubled

individuals.

Momentum appeared to build

Thursday among some Republi-

cans for federal legislation that

would encourage states to estab-

lish red flag laws — as 19 states and

the District of Columbia have al-

ready done — and Democrats

seemed open to the possibility. But

the details have been thorny: Re-

publicans have been insistent on

strong due process guarantees,

and gun rights groups have cast

many of the state laws as a back-

door attempt at gun confiscation.

Manchin, who led the post-

Newtown effort to expand back-

ground checks, said a “little bit of

everything” was on the table but

expressed hope that the possibili-

ties could be quickly narrowed.

“This feels different right now,”

he said. “I can’t get my grandchil-

dren out of my mind. It could have

been them. And something needs

to be done.”

Any sense of optimism, howev-

er, was tempered by Thursday’s

vote on the Domestic Terrorism

Prevention Act, which moved

through the House last week and

to the Senate floor this week in

response to the Buffalo killings.

Most of the victims were Black,

shot by a gunman who authorities

say espoused white supremacy.

Schumer on Wednesday said

the bill, which passed the House

largely on party lines, constitutes

“a necessary and timely step to

honor the memories of the dead in

Buffalo, and to make sure mass

shootings motivated by race don’t

happen again.” But he also said

Thursday’s procedural vote was

an opportunity to start debating

the gun-control proposals that

have emerged in the aftermath of

the Uvalde rampage.

Republicans, however, not only

said it was premature to debate a

response to the recent mass shoot-

ings, they expressed serious

qualms about the content of the

domestic terrorism bill itself. They

echoed House GOP concerns that

its provisions would lead to “tar-

geting” of conservatives by the

Justice Department, among other

BY MIKE DEBONIS

Hopes for a long-shot deal to
pass a new federal law that could
keep guns out of the hands of
potential mass murderers were
left Thursday in the hands of a
small bipartisan group of sena-
tors, who pledged to explore mul-
tiple options even as lawmakers
left Washington for a Memorial
Day recess.
The talks, to be led by Sens.
John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Chris
Murphy (D-Conn.), began in ear-
nest less than two days after a
gunman killed 19 children and
two teachers at a Texas elementary
school — and just moments after
Senate Republicans blocked a bill
aimed at addressing a previous
U.S. mass shooting, the May 14
killing of 10 people at a Buffalo
supermarket.
The 47-to-47 vote on that bill,
which was aimed at focusing the
federal government on combating
domestic terrorism and white su-
premacy, demonstrated the parti-
san polarization around any
measure addressing acts of mass
gun violence. Forging a compro-
mise on gun restrictions — which
are fiercely opposed by most Re-
publicans, who warn of a slippery
slope toward constitutional in-
fringement — will be even more
difficult.
But Democrats and a handful of
Republicans said the shock to the
national conscience created by the
tragedy in Uvalde, Tex., compels
them to try again where previous
efforts fell short, including those
following the 2012 killing of 20
schoolchildren and six adults in
Newtown, Conn.
“We’ve got to do something,”
said Murphy, who represented
Newtown as a House member at
the time of the shooting. “We’ve
got to do something significant,
but I also know that we’re not
going to be able to do everything at
once.”
Cornyn, who returned to the
Capitol on Thursday after visiting
Uvalde on Wednesday, said he be-
lieved the tragedy there could
“provide some impetus” for com-
promise. But he made clear any
potential legislation would have

to be modest.

Democratic proposals to ban

military-style weapons and high-

capacity ammunition magazines

are not on the table, Republicans

said. Instead, negotiators are eye-

ing modest expansions of back-

ground checks and “red flag” laws

that would allow authorities to

keep guns away from people

found to constitute a potential

threat.

“Restricting the rights of law-

abiding citizens is not going to

make our communities or our

country any safer,” Cornyn told

reporters. “We need to focus on

the specific problem and try to

find ways to fix some of them.”

The negotiations kicked off

Thursday afternoon inside Mur-

phy’s basement office at the Capi-

tol, with eight other senators pre-

sent: Democrats Richard Blumen-

thal (Conn.), Martin Heinrich

(N.M.), Joe Manchin III (W.Va.)

and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), as well

as Republicans Bill Cassidy (La.),

Susan Collins (Maine), Lindsey O.

Graham (S.C.) and Patrick J. Toom-

ey (Pa.).

Murphy and Cornyn spoke sep-

arately Thursday, the two s aid.

Mindful of previous gun talks,

which tend to peter out after

weeks or months, Senate Majority

Leader Charles E. Schumer

(D-N.Y.) said Democrats would not

allow the new round to drag on

indefinitely: “Make no mistake

about it, if these negotiations do

not bear fruit in a short period of

time, the Senate will vote on gun

safety legislation.”

Schumer moved this week to

place two House-passed back-

ground-check expansion bills on

the Senate calendar for a possible

vote, but those do not have suffi-

cient GOP support to defeat a fili-

buster and would fail if put up for a

vote. His ultimatum effectively

gives the bipartisan group until

June 6, when the Senate returns

from its recess, to show major

progress toward compromise.

“Our hope, even amidst our

deep skepticism, is that during

this week, Democrats and Repub-

licans at long last will come to

agree on something meaningful

that will reduce gun violence in a

concerns.

The bill would require the FBI,

Justice Department and Depart-

ment of Homeland Security to cre-

ate specific domestic terrorism

bureaus and for each agency to

jointly report twice yearly, includ-

ing specific assessments of the

“threat posed by White suprema-

cists and neo-Nazis.” The bill also

directs the agencies to focus on the

infiltration by White racist groups

of law enforcement and correc-

tions agencies as well as the mili-

tary, creating an interagency task

force to do so.

Advancing the bill to a debate

required the support of at least 10

Republicans due to the Senate’s

60-vote filibuster rule. But the

vote failed, with Schumer joining

Republicans in voting no for pro-

cedural reasons.

Cornyn, a senior member of the

Senate Judiciary Committee, said

earlier this week that the bill was

“redundant” and would detract

from the federal government’s

“ability to flexibly deal with other

forms of terrorism.” Asked if white

supremacy and neo-Nazism were

domestic threats worthy of specif-

ic focus by Congress, Cornyn made

reference to Russian President

Vladimir Putin’s baseless “de-Na-

zification” justification for his in-

vasion of Ukraine.

“Mr. Putin is seeing Nazis in

Ukraine. I guess our Democratic

colleagues are focused on Nazis in

America,” he said. “I don’t know. It

just doesn’t make any sense to me

at all.”

Another Republican, Sen. Kev-

in Cramer (N.D.), dismissed the

bill as “pure messaging” and “try-

ing to take advantage of people’s

grief.”

Senate Judiciary Committee

Chairman Richard J. Durbin (D-

Ill.) noted Wednesday that the FBI

itself has identified a growing do-

mestic terror threat, including

from white-supremacist groups,

and said that it was time for Con-

gress to act.

“Time and again, the Senate has

failed to take any meaningful

steps to prevent violent extrem-

ism,” he said. “When exactly did

stopping mass murder become a

partisan issue?”

Group of bipartisan senators exploring options on gun restrictions

JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) essentially gave a bipartisan group of 10 senators

until June 6, when the Senate returns from its recess, to make progress on gun-control legislation.

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