U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, right, and Sen. Tim Scott speak to reporters on Capitol Hill, in Washington, on June 23, 2020.KEVIN LAMARQUE/Reuters
A Republican bill to rein in police misconduct in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis failed in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, leaving congressional efforts to address racial inequities in American policing at an impasse.
Democrats, denouncing the measure as irrevocably flawed, defeated a Republican push to move to final debate by a vote of 55-45, short of the 60 votes needed, a month after Floyd’s death in police custody set off weeks of worldwide protests against police brutality.
The legislative fight over reform now moves to the House of Representatives, which plans to vote on a more sweeping Democratic bill on Thursday.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and other Senate Democrats said they believed Wednesday’s outcome makes it more likely that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the chamber’s top Republican, will agree to negotiations on a stronger bipartisan measure.
Floyd’s May 25 death in Minneapolis, after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, stirred strong public sentiment for stopping excessive force by police, especially against African Americans.
Civil rights leaders and activist groups, who called on the Senate to reject the Republican bill, have urged lawmakers to take up stronger measures.
Senate Democrats have sought to seize the mantle of what they regard as a new U.S. civil rights movement.
“This movement will not be deterred. This movement will not accept anything less than real, real, substantial, substantive solutions,” said Sen. Kamala Harris, a Black lawmaker who helped craft the Democratic legislation.
“And so let the beginning be today, of a real conversation,” she added.
McConnell said he would schedule another vote if there was enough progress on closing Republican-Democratic differences.
But Senate Republicans also warned that Wednesday’s vote could mean a political stalemate that leaves Black Americans vulnerable to police violence.
“When this bill is gone and next week we’re onto … something else, we’ll forget about this. We’ll move on,” said Sen. Tim Scott, the chamber’s only Black Republican and author of the failed bill.
“And do you know what’s going to happen? Something bad. And we’ll be right back here talking about what should have been done, what could have been done” to prevent it, he said.
The Republican and Democratic bills address many of the same issues: chokeholds, no-knock warrants, police body cameras, use of deadly force and training to de-escalate confrontations with suspects and to encourage officer intervention against illegal conduct as it occurs.
Democrats opposed the Republican bill because it relies on incentives to effect reforms and seeks data collection on issues such as no-knock warrants, rather than mandating changes as the Democratic bill does.
Republicans warn that the Democratic bill could undermine law enforcement, in part because it would remove qualified immunity protections for police and allow victims of misconduct to sue for damages.
A June 22-23 Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Americans favour removing the protections, 49 per cent to 26 per cent. Republicans were split on the issue, with 38 per cent favouring removal and 37 per cent opposing it.
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