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| © Al Drago for The New York Times “This bill is not salvageable and we need bipartisan talks to get to a constructive starting point,” wrote Senator Chuck Schumer and other Democrats in a letter to Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader. |
By Catie Edmondson, The New York Times
WASHINGTON
Senate Democrats on Tuesday signaled that they would block Republicans’ attempts to advance a narrow bill to change policing practices, rejecting the measure as “woefully inadequate” and calling on Senator Mitch McConnell to negotiate a more expansive one that both parties could support.
Their decision, outlined in a letter to Mr. McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, the day before a planned test vote on the Republican bill, reflected deep opposition to the measure among Democrats and civil rights leaders, who have dismissed the legislation as an antiquated and inadequate response to calls to address systemic racism in policing amid a national outcry for an overhaul.
It also reflects an election-year political bet by Democrats that there is more to be gained in blocking what they consider a fundamentally flawed measure — and blaming Republicans for the demise of policing reform efforts — than there is in attempting to salvage it, which could provide cover for Republicans in the eyes of voters who increasingly regard the issue as urgent.
“No bill will pass as a result of this ploy by Senator McConnell,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said on the Senate floor. “The Republican majority has given the Senate a bad bill and proposed no credible way to sufficiently improve it.”
The Republican bill, spearheaded by Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the party’s lone African-American member in the chamber, is a vastly different proposal than the one congressional Democrats have proposed. The Democratic bill is expected to pass the House on Thursday; Mr. McConnell has said that package is “going nowhere” in his chamber.
Mr. Scott’s bill would encourage state and local police departments to make changes, including limiting the use of chokeholds and penalizing departments that do not require the use of body cameras, but would not alter the qualified immunity doctrine that shields officers from lawsuits or place any new federal restrictions on the use of lethal force.
In the letter on Tuesday to Mr. McConnell, Mr. Schumer, along with Senators Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey — co-sponsors of the Democratic bill — called the Republican measure “so threadbare and lacking in substance that it does not even provide a proper baseline for negotiations.”
“We will not meet this moment by holding a floor vote on the Justice Act, nor can we simply amend this bill,” they wrote. “This bill is not salvageable and we need bipartisan talks to get to a constructive starting point.”
Before Democrats announced their stance, Mr. McConnell appeared to have anticipated what they would do, criticizing them for political gamesmanship.
“The American people deserve better than a political stalemate,” Mr. McConnell said in his own speech on the Senate floor. “The American people deserve for the Senate to take up this issue at this time. Senate Republicans want to have this discussion.”
Ms. Harris said the blame for the logjam lay with Republicans.
“Don’t let anyone dare suggest we are standing in the way of progress,” she said. “Let us all be clear about what is happening in the politics of this moment: The Republican bill has been thrown out to give lip service to an issue with nothing substantial in it that would have saved any of those lives.”
If Senate Republicans fail on Wednesday to muster the 60 votes necessary to advance to debate on Mr. Scott’s bill, it would be a major setback in efforts to enact an overhaul this year targeting excessive use of force and racial discrimination by law enforcement, as protesters across the nation continue to clamor for major changes.
The House on Thursday is expected to pass its own policing bill, the most expansive intervention into policing that lawmakers have proposed in recent memory, which would change qualified immunity, raise the bar for the use of lethal force, make it easier to track and prosecute police misconduct, and is designed to force departments to eliminate the use of chokeholds.
Read more at The New York Times
WASHINGTON
Senate Democrats on Tuesday signaled that they would block Republicans’ attempts to advance a narrow bill to change policing practices, rejecting the measure as “woefully inadequate” and calling on Senator Mitch McConnell to negotiate a more expansive one that both parties could support.
Their decision, outlined in a letter to Mr. McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, the day before a planned test vote on the Republican bill, reflected deep opposition to the measure among Democrats and civil rights leaders, who have dismissed the legislation as an antiquated and inadequate response to calls to address systemic racism in policing amid a national outcry for an overhaul.
It also reflects an election-year political bet by Democrats that there is more to be gained in blocking what they consider a fundamentally flawed measure — and blaming Republicans for the demise of policing reform efforts — than there is in attempting to salvage it, which could provide cover for Republicans in the eyes of voters who increasingly regard the issue as urgent.
“No bill will pass as a result of this ploy by Senator McConnell,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said on the Senate floor. “The Republican majority has given the Senate a bad bill and proposed no credible way to sufficiently improve it.”
The Republican bill, spearheaded by Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the party’s lone African-American member in the chamber, is a vastly different proposal than the one congressional Democrats have proposed. The Democratic bill is expected to pass the House on Thursday; Mr. McConnell has said that package is “going nowhere” in his chamber.
Mr. Scott’s bill would encourage state and local police departments to make changes, including limiting the use of chokeholds and penalizing departments that do not require the use of body cameras, but would not alter the qualified immunity doctrine that shields officers from lawsuits or place any new federal restrictions on the use of lethal force.
In the letter on Tuesday to Mr. McConnell, Mr. Schumer, along with Senators Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey — co-sponsors of the Democratic bill — called the Republican measure “so threadbare and lacking in substance that it does not even provide a proper baseline for negotiations.”
“We will not meet this moment by holding a floor vote on the Justice Act, nor can we simply amend this bill,” they wrote. “This bill is not salvageable and we need bipartisan talks to get to a constructive starting point.”
Before Democrats announced their stance, Mr. McConnell appeared to have anticipated what they would do, criticizing them for political gamesmanship.
“The American people deserve better than a political stalemate,” Mr. McConnell said in his own speech on the Senate floor. “The American people deserve for the Senate to take up this issue at this time. Senate Republicans want to have this discussion.”
Ms. Harris said the blame for the logjam lay with Republicans.
“Don’t let anyone dare suggest we are standing in the way of progress,” she said. “Let us all be clear about what is happening in the politics of this moment: The Republican bill has been thrown out to give lip service to an issue with nothing substantial in it that would have saved any of those lives.”
If Senate Republicans fail on Wednesday to muster the 60 votes necessary to advance to debate on Mr. Scott’s bill, it would be a major setback in efforts to enact an overhaul this year targeting excessive use of force and racial discrimination by law enforcement, as protesters across the nation continue to clamor for major changes.
The House on Thursday is expected to pass its own policing bill, the most expansive intervention into policing that lawmakers have proposed in recent memory, which would change qualified immunity, raise the bar for the use of lethal force, make it easier to track and prosecute police misconduct, and is designed to force departments to eliminate the use of chokeholds.
Read more at The New York Times
