Senate GOP Unveils Policing Reform Bill, Countering Democrats

(Bloomberg) -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans will attempt to start debate next week on their proposal to overhaul policing practices as both parties scramble to respond to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

“We are serious about trying to make a law here,” McConnell said at a news conference as Republicans unveiled the bill introduced Wednesday by Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican in the Senate.

The bill, which will need some Democratic support to advance to the floor, would require de-escalation training for local police officers, increase use of body cameras, and make lynching a federal crime.

Scott urged Democrats to vote with Republicans to initiate a days-long debate on the measure, with each side open-minded about the possible outcome and neither side seeking “political points.”

“I think most Americans are tired of us talking about election outcomes and polls,” he said on the Senate floor. “I’m suggesting that this bill, the Justice Act, is a serious nationwide effort tackling the issues of police reform, accountability and transparency.”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the GOP plan “does not rise to the moment” and would need “dramatic improvement” to win Democratic backing. House Democrats plan to bring their own plan to the House floor next week. Even if each chamber passed a bill, they would have to iron out differences, perhaps in conjunction with the White House, for any final bill to become law.

Spreading Protests

Floyd’s death, as well as those of other Black citizens during encounters with police, sparked widespread and continuing protests in the U.S. and abroad. Race and policing have become a volatile political issue less than five months before elections that will determine control of the White House and Congress, creating a sense of urgency among lawmakers to act.

The House Judiciary Committee in a 24-14 party-line vote Wednesday approved the Democrats’ proposal, which party members say would force significant changes in policy to address excessive uses of force and racial discrimination.

The Senate GOP bill would require police departments to provide detailed information to the Justice Department about incidents where officers use excessive force and about their use of “no-knock” search warrants or lose up to 25% of their federal funds.

‘Driving While Black’

Scott, who led a Senate GOP task force to draft the bill, said he was stopped this year for “driving while Black,” and said he was issued a ticket for “failing to use my turn signal earlier in my lane change.”

The GOP plan wouldn’t make it easier to prosecute and sue law enforcement officers. A cornerstone of a more expansive proposal from congressional Democrats would curtail police officers’ “qualified immunity” from legal action.

Police-officer immunity is emerging as perhaps the toughest issue in the debate. Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the GOP’s chief vote counter, said eliminating such protection would be a “bridge too far” for many Republicans.

Senator Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican who often works with Democrats, said he’s willing to consider some of their proposed changes but that he can’t support changing the legal protections for law enforcement officers.

“I think the qualified immunity line is not one we’re going to cross,” Romney told reporters Wednesday.

But Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said he’s open to a compromise that would lower the bar on the legal protections and “if it’s that important, we can try.”

The House Democrats’ plan would ban federal officers from using chokeholds, bar racial profiling, and end “no-knock” search warrants by federal officers in drug cases. It also would create a national registry for police violations, and require local police departments that get federal funds to conduct bias training and use de-escalation tactics.

‘Meaningful Change’

“Today we are proposing meaningful change,” Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said. “Thoughts and prayers are not enough. Pledges to study the problem are not enough. Half-measures are not enough.”

He called Scott’s proposal “a sham,” saying it provides no real enforcement provisions.

Representative Pete Stauber, a Minnesota Republican and former police officer, plans to introduce a bill mirroring Scott’s legislation in the House on Thursday.

In a sign of how important the issue is to both parties, President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an order to encourage better training on the use of force.

The president said a new credentialing process for law enforcement agencies will urge them to train officers with modern use-of-force standards and de-escalation tactics, and limit the use of chokeholds to incidents in which lethal force is allowed by law.

Several Senate Democrats, including Kamala Harris of California and Doug Jones of Alabama, told reporters Wednesday that they haven’t decided whether they will vote to open debate on the Republican legislation or try to block it.

Scott’s bill “gives lip service to the problem” of police brutality, Harris said. “There’s just no teeth in it.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that the GOP “proposal of studies and reporting without transparency and accountability is inadequate. The Senate’s so-called Justice Act is not action.”

Much of the House Judiciary meeting on the Democratic bill devolved into political posturing. Democrat Representative Eric Swalwell of California called for Republicans to publicly speak the phrase, “Black lives matter.” That drew an angry response from Republicans, with some retorting that “all lives matter.”

Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida questioned the “theatrics of serving up questions on a political theme.”

“It would be as if I were willing to yield to any Democrat willing to say that blue lives matter, right? Not super productive, if we acknowledge all lives matter,” Gaetz said.

Some Republicans also used the session to resurrect criticism of missteps by the FBI in its investigation of Russian election interference, including the criminal conviction of former Trump National Security Ad visor Michael Flynn of lying to the agents.

GOP Representative Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota cited the Flynn case to propose requiring recordings of all FBI interviews.

New York Representative Hakeem Jeffries, a member of the House Democratic leadership, ticked off the names of African Americans who have been victims of abuse by police.

“So, we’re not here to talk about Michael Flynn,” Jeffries said. Republican efforts to focus on the FBI’s handing of the Flynn prosecution and the Russia investigation are “beneath the dignity of this institution and the lives that have been lost,” he said.

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