House Passes George Floyd Justice In Policing Act

A Congressional effort to pass police reform legislation in the wake of the death of George Floyd and other African Americans while in police custody stallled last June, despite overwhelming bipartisan demand for change. Congress Stalls on Police Reform Despite Bipartisan Calls for Change.

As with everything, the problem was the “Grim Reaper” of the Senate graveyard where bills go to die:

With the support of three Republicans, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed a controversial police reform measure on Thursday. The bill failed, however, to gain traction in the Republican-led Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected Democratic Party demands to toughen a corresponding Senate measure before it is formally introduced for debate.

The stalled efforts reflect a deep partisan divide in Washington which has left the nation’s lawmakers unable to act on Americans’ demands for police reform and change on other issues such as immigration and gun control.

Senate Republicans then unveiled their own legislation to address the national outcry for reform of the country’s law enforcement departments, with hopes of acting on police misconduct, dangerous practices and concerns of systemic racism. They hid behind Sen. Tim Scott, the chamber’s lone black Republican member, who led the charge for the 106-page legislation to install nearly a dozen, major new provisions to address policing concerns. Republicans’ Police Reform Bill Focuses On Transparency And Training.
President Trump said he supported the Republican effort.

Democrats rejected the Republican bill, saying it did not go far enough to address the issue:

Democrats said the proposal, which would encourage police departments to end such practices such as chokeholds and no-knock warrants but does not explicitly ban them, falls short.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized the GOP bill, saying it “does not rise to the moment” and would need “dramatic improvement,” but he did not say that Democrats would block the procedural motion needed to bring the bill to the floor.

“There’s no reason to scribble our changes in the margins or nibble around the edges of this large, difficult and persistent problem. The moment calls for bold action, and the American people are behind it,” Schumer said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sounded similar criticism. “The Senate proposal of studies and reporting without transparency and accountability is inadequate,” she said in a statement. “The Senate’s so-called Justice Act is not action.”

It was the latest example of how partisanship and polarization on Capitol Hill have hamstrung Congress’ ability to meet the moment and respond meaningfully to public opinion. Why Congress failed to answer the national call for police bill:

Major changes in policing policy appear likely to join gun control and immigration as social issues where even with Americans’ overwhelming support, their elected representatives are unable or unwilling to go along, especially when President Donald Trump is indifferent or opposed.

It’s a new year, and despite losing the 2020 election and their control of the Senate, that “bipartisan” spirit for policing reforms last summer is still subsumed by Republican politics of hyper-partisanship and polarization. The Party of No will always say “no” to everything.

On Wednesday, House Democrats approved the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in a party-line vote with no Republican support. The Sole GOP vote on House police reform bill says he ‘accidentally pressed the wrong voting button’.

When Republicans whine about “bipartisanship,” what they really mean is that they should be in charge. There is no good faith effort on their part at bipartisanship. The GQP is a post-policy party that does not care about policy and governance, and addressing the nation’s needs. All they care about is raw power.

As Greg Sargent explained:

Republicans want the public debate to unfold in a place where they get to refrain from saying what they’re for — that is, refrain from saying what they’re prepared to concede to Democrats — while simultaneously attacking Democrats for not being willing to concede enough to them. That’s a sucker’s game, and Democrats shouldn’t play it.

The House late Wednesday night gave the green light to the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in a 220-212 vote.

The vote was initially scheduled to happen Thursday but was moved up due to a potential threat to the Capitol related to the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D), who represents the Minnesota district where George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police last May, served as Speaker pro tempore during the floor debate over the legislation.

The sweeping police reform bill received no Republican votes. Initially, Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) had voted in favor of bill but he later tweeted that he had pressed the wrong button, a post he later deleted and replaced. Two Democrats, Reps. Jared Golden (Maine) and Ron Kind (Wis.), voted against the measure.

The bill faces a tough road in the Senate, where GOP lawmakers are already bashing it as overly partisan. [See Greg Sargent].

Still, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said she and other leaders of the group have had “great conversations” with Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) about finding middle ground in hopes of pushing the bill through the 50-50 Senate and to President Biden’s desk. Scott, the only Black Republican senator, has his own police reform proposal, and has been open to elements of the Democrats’ version.

“[It’s] different than the last time, where we are in the country,” Beatty said, referring to shifting cultural attitudes surrounding law enforcement. “I think it has given people more feeling of: this could be the right thing to do at the right time.”

Beatty declined to say whether House Democrats are prepared to accept a slimmed-down version of the bill, but also isn’t ruling anything out.

What is Sen. Tim Scott and fellow Republicans willing to concede? Why must Democrats always concede to come to the far weaker Republican position?

“I’m not at the point yet of taking [anything] out,” she said. “We like the bill as it is.”

Senate Republicans had balked, in particular, at the provision eliminating certain legal protections currently afforded to law enforcers in many states and precincts. Known as qualified immunity, those protections are needed, Republicans argue, to shield law enforcers from rampant litigation.

Reality Check: Few police officers are ever charged for police abuses, up to and including homicide. The very few who are charged are rarely ever convicted by a jury at trial. Qualified immunity serves as a “license to kill” on behalf of the government.

Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), the original sponsor of the bill, said she intends to counter those criticisms by examining localities where similar reforms have already been enacted.

“The states have taken up all kinds of reforms,” Bass said. “And the sky hasn’t fallen.”

As it currently reads, the police reform bill would overhaul national policing standards on several levels.

Racial profiling at every level of law enforcement would be prohibited; chokeholds, carotid holds and no-knock warrants would be banned at the federal level; qualified immunity for officers would be overhauled and a national police misconduct registry would be created so officers who were fired for such discretions could not be hired by another police department.

Although the bill would not technically mandate the prohibition of certain reforms such as chokeholds at a state and local level, it would tie in the new federal standards as thresholds for police departments to meet if they wanted to continue receiving federal aid.

The legislation was introduced initially to the House last summer after George Floyd, a Black man, was killed by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.

Floyd’s death, as well as the police killing of Breonna Taylor, sparked a summer dominated by nationwide Black Lives Matter protests demanding substantive police reform and the rooting out of systemic racism.

In addition to Bass’s bill in the House, Scott and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced police reform proposals of their own in the Senate, underscoring the bipartisan nature of the issue.

Scott’s bill, the JUSTICE Act, covers many of the same areas of concern addressed by the Democrats’ bill such as the banning of chokeholds. Paul’s Justice for Breonna Taylor Act aimed to ban no-knock warrants — the technique which led to Taylor’s death — something the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would prohibit.

Still, the road to negotiating a bill that would pass the evenly split Senate could be arduous.

Scott in a statement Tuesday signaled he was open to discussing the proposed slashing of qualified immunity for officers, a policy point of contention, but called the House version of the bill “partisan.” [See Greg Sargent].

“I hope my friends on the other side of the aisle will come to the table to find common ground where we can make meaningful changes that will bring us closer to the goal of a more just country,” Scott said.

The real question is when will Republicans show good faith and come to the table to find common ground? They have failed to demonstrate any good faith for years.