House Dems pass police funding bills after solving internal divisions
WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Thursday pushed through a longsought policing and public safety package after overcoming internal differences on legislation they plan to make central to their election-year pitch.
The package of four bills passed in succession — some with strong bipartisan support — and head to the Senate, where their fate is uncertain.
The Democrats’ success came after party leaders spent hours wrangling with progressives who threatened to block the package over their concerns about increasing money for local police departments.
A few lawmakers said the plan lacked the accountability measures Democrats had once sought after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked protests against racial injustice.
The House ended up approving the money, including for departments with fewer than 125 officers, and aid for de-escalation training and mental health services. A chief aim is reducing fatal encounters between police and people with mental illness.
“The bottom line is that you can’t cut it or defund your way to safer communities and better police departments,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., one of the lead negotiators. “It’s about investing to protect.”
Despite the opposition from some liberals, there was support from top progressives Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who had negotiated with Gottheimer, a moderate. After a deal was announced Wednesday, Democratic leaders quickly moved to bring the bills to a vote.
“We are proud of the work that we have been able to do here collectively as Democrats with different ideologies,” Omar said. “And I think that this is the beginning, hopefully, of a process that we can continue to engage in.”
To get more liberals on board, language was included that would allow the Justice Department to have discretion over which police departments are permitted to receive the grants. It would also allocate $50 million for data collection on police practices and community safety.
The bills did attract some Republican support. Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., a co-sponsor of Gottheimer’s funding bill, spent time on the floor Thursday urging his GOP colleagues to join him in supporting it. But other Republicans called the Democrats’ package a last-ditch effort to win over voters in the midterms.