WASHINGTON — With the House expected to pass legislation late Thursday aimed at reforming police tactics and practices, Republicans and Democrats are digging in and pointing fingers as the prospects of any bill on the subject reaching the president’s desk are dimming dramatically.
The likely stalemate comes as trust between the two parties is further diminishing and Democrats feel their chances of taking back the Senate from Republicans in November are increasing, leaving them better positioned to get more favorable legislation after Election Day.
Republicans charge that Democrats are acting in their own self-political interest and a visibly defeated and frustrated Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said Thursday that Democrats are playing “a dangerous game of politics.”
Democrats “misjudged,” when they coalesced Wednesday to defeat a procedural vote on the GOP Senate version of a police reform bill, Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.C. said. “They may think it’s a good position to be in come November. I really disagree.”
Democrats, however, are still united in their strategy of go big or go home — passing a bill that makes significant changes or nothing at all. They argue that the Republican version of the legislation is not enough to change police behavior. They said they want to go to the Senate floor with a compromise bill, putting them in a better position to negotiate with a House-passed Democratic bill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi maintained that Senate Democrats “did the right thing” in opposing the GOP bill.
“They need to go together and write a bill that is real. Don’t just take the words and defang it so that has no effect,” she told NBC News Thursday. “You all gave them so much credit for a bill that did nothing and then expected us to embrace it. No way.”
The president’s poll numbers have tanked in recent days, showing that voters trust Biden to address issues of race.
“I think it will just take awhile,” Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said. The election is just four months away.
The Democratic bill bans chokeholds while the GOP bill incentivizes police departments to do so by withholding federal funds. The Democratic bill also bans no-knock warrants and eliminates the qualified immunity defense for police officers, which would allow officers to be liable for death or injury. The GOP bill studies no-knock warrants and doesn’t touch qualified immunity.
Few Republicans are expected to vote for the Democrats’ bill this evening. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, the only black Republican who also marched in a Black Lives Matter protest and is retiring, said on the House floor Thursday afternoon he couldn’t support the Democratic bill.
“Today, we are missing an opportunity to pass an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill. We are missing an opportunity for a police reform bill to actually become law. Ware missing an opportunity to do our part to prevent another Black person from dying in police custody,” Hurd said.
Time is running out. The Senate has moved onto the NDAA, the defense authorization bill, which is expected to be on the Senate floor until the third week of July. Then it is expected that the Senate will take up another coronavirus relief bill, pitting Congress close to the election.
Frank Thorp V contributed.