After Floyd, Congress ready to plunge into policing laws
Bolstered with new momentum, Congress is ready to try again to change the nation’s policing laws, heeding President Joe Biden’s admonition that the guilty verdict in George Floyd’s death is “not enough” for a nation confronting a legacy of police violence.
Legislation that once was stalled on Capitol Hill is now closer than ever to consensus, lawmakers of both parties said Wednesday, a day after a Minneapolis jury found former officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death. Behind the scenes, negotiations are narrowing on a compromise for a sweeping overhaul, although passage remains uncertain.
Tuesday’s verdict launches “a new phase of a long struggle to bring justice to America,” declared Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., in urging passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. “This is the human rights issue in the United States of America.”
The revived effort, led by Black lawmakers including Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, comes at a pivotal moment. The nation is on edge over the Floyd case, the deaths of other Black Americans and almost a year of protests accusing police of brutal actions that often go unseen.
The guilty verdict for Chauvin was a rare occurrence, not least because in this case an officer’s actions were recorded by a bystander and shown to the jury in court. That followed months of the video being played repeatedly on TV, imprinted in the minds of Americans everywhere.
With political pressure mounting on all sides, Biden is urging Congress to plunge back into policing legislation.
“We can’t stop here,” he said Tuesday after the verdict.
In private, Scott briefed key Republican senators Wednesday, updating his colleagues on quiet negotiations that have been underway with Democrats for nearly two months. He told reporters he expected to wrap up those talks with the Democrats within two weeks.
“We’ve made tremendous progress,” Scott said on Capitol Hill. Democrats say they are ready. “This has to come to a stop,” said Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the highest-ranking Black elected official in Congress, after the Chauvin verdict.
He and others, including Scott, have told wrenching stories of their own experiences with law enforcement well into their adult lives as elected officials serving in the most powerful corridors of power.
Congress struggled with a police overhaul bill last summer in the immediate aftermath of Floyd’s death, but the legislation went nowhere after Democrats and Republicans could not agree to a compromise.
The House, led by Democrats, has now approved a sweeping overhaul twice, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, that would be the most substantial federally ordered changes to policing in a generation.
The bill would allow police officers to be sued and damages awarded for violating people’s constitutional rights, limiting “qualified immunity” protections now in place for law enforcement.
The legislation would ban the use of chokeholds and would create a national database of police misconduct to prevent “bad apple” officers from being hired by other departments.
A Republican bill from Scott does not go as far as the Housepassed measure. It was blocked last year by Senate Democrats, a fact that Republicans are emphasizing.
The GOP’s Justice Act would increase compliance by law enforcement in submitting use-offorce reports to a national database. It also would require compliance reports for no-knock warrants, like the kind officers used to enter the residence when Breonna Taylor was killed in Kentucky.
The Democratic and Republican bills do share some provisions, including a measure making lynching a federal hate crime.
Talks in recent weeks have centered on one of the main differences, the limits on the public’s ability to sue law enforcement officers under “qualified immunity.” One alternative being discussed would allow police departments, rather than individual officers, to be held liable.
“I think that is a logical step forward,” said Scott, putting more of the burden on the department rather than the officer.
Biden is sure to speak about policing issues in his address to a joint session of Congress next Wednesday. Although Biden is eager to get a police reform bill on his desk, press secretary Jen Psaki says the decision on what legislation is passed and when is the responsibility of Congress.
The White House is giving lawmakers “space” to hash out details, Psaki said.
Not that Biden is steering totally clear. Senior administration leaders are consulting with members of Congress, as is the president, who has held separate Oval Office meetings with lawmakers. Aides also are working with civil rights organizations and other outside groups to pressure Congress to act.
But in the aftermath of Floyd’s death and others, some Black advocates say neither bill being discussed in Congress goes far enough. In the hours after Chauvin’s conviction, activists across the nation were shifting their attention toward Democratic leaders who they say must be held accountable for campaign promises that were made about addressing police abuse and other pressing issues facing Black Americans.