Inside: Senate GOP’s emerging bill would restrict chokehold use,

WASHINGTON — Driven by a swift-moving national debate, Senate Republicans are on the brink of introducing an extensive package of policing changes with new restrictions on police chokeholds and other practices as Congress rushes to respond to mass demonstrations over the deaths of George Floyd and other black Americans.

It’s a sudden shift of GOP priorities with President Donald Trump signaling support. The White House will announce its own executive actions on law enforcement procedures on today, a crush of activity that shows how quickly police violence and racial prejudice are transforming national politics.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opened the chamber Monday declaring that Senate Republicans are developing “a serious proposal to reform law enforcement.”

While the emerging GOP package isn’t as extensive as the sweeping Democratic proposal, which is headed for a House vote next week, it is perhaps the most far-reaching proposed changes to policing procedures from the party long aligned with a “law and order” approach. Confronted with a groundswell of public unrest over police violence, in cities large and small nationwide, even the most conservative senators are joining the effort.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the sole African American Republican in the Senate, has been crafting the package set to roll out Wednesday, and said he spoke with Trump about it over the weekend. Scott warned that any delay in voting would be a “bad idea” and has said the chokehold, in particular, “is a policy whose time has come and gone.”

The weekend shooting death of Rayshard Brooks by a white officer in Atlanta led to a renewed public outcry, more street protests and the police chief’s swift resignation.