Pelosi presses Senate for bill
GOP’S policing reform legislation inadequate, speaker says
WASHINGTON — Passage of the House Democrats’ police overhaul bill returned attention to the Senate on Friday, as the divided Congress struggles to address the outcry over the killings of George Floyd and other Black Americans.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled she is willing to negotiate if the Senate is able to approve its own bill. But she said Democrats have no interest in engaging with Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell on the Republican-only package, which collapsed this week after Senate Democrats blocked it from debate.
“The Senate has to do better,” Pelosi said.
The House approved the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act late Thursday.
It has almost zero chance of becoming law. President Donald Trump’s administration said he would veto the bill if it gets to his desk. Mcconnell has said the bill would not pass the Republican-held chamber.
Pelosi said she is all for bringing ideas to the table, but “if one person is saying chokeholds and the other is saying no chokeholds, it’s very hard to compromise.”
Law enforcement organizations and some of the nation’s leading business groups, including the Business Roundtable of leading CEOS, are encouraging Congress to keep working toward a solution.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican senator, who drafted the GOP package, said Thursday that his bill is “closer to the trash can than it’s ever been.”
Neither bill goes as far as some activists want, with calls to defund the police and shift resources to other community services.
Scott insisted he was open to amending his bill with changes proposed by Democrats. But Democrats doubted Mcconnell would allow a thorough debate and instead blocked the GOP bill in hopes of renegotiating.