Democrats: GOP police bill ‘not salvageable,’ demand talks
WASHINGTON – Top Senate Democrats said Tuesday the Republican policing bill is “not salvageable,” as they demand negotiations on a new, more bipartisan package with more extensive law enforcement changes and accountability in response to the killing of Black Americans.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer signaled the Democrats intend to block the GOP package, which Democrats say does not go far enough to meet the moment that has galvanized the nation with demonstrations over police procedures.
“We don’t need to study the problem of police misconduct and violence, we need to solve it,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
The Democratic opposition is being backed by the nation’s leading civil rights organizations and the lawyer, Benjamin Crump, representing the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, two African Americans whose deaths sparked worldwide protests over racial bias in policing.
The Republican legislation would create a national database of police use-of-force incidents, restrict police choke holds and set up new training procedures. It is not as sweeping as a Democratic proposal, which mandates many of the changes.
The standoff does not end the debate. Democrats are trying to force Republicans to the negotiating table to build a more robust package more aligned with their own bill, set to be approved by the House this week. The House and Senate versions would ultimately need to be the same to become law.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing ahead with the Justice Act in a test vote Wednesday, but without Democratic backing the bill is not expected to reach the threshold needed to advance.
“We’re ready to make a law, not just make a point,” McConnell said as he opened the Senate on Tuesday. He said Americans “deserve better than a partisan stalemate.”
McConnell said, “We’ll find out whether our Democratic colleagues share our ambition or whether they chose to duck the issue and leave the country in the lurch.”
Schumer and the co-authors of the Democrats’ proposed package, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., wrote in a letter to McConnell that the Republican bill is “not salvageable and we need bipartisan talks to get to a constructive starting point.”