WASHINGTON (CN) — George Floyd’s death sparked international protest, rocking the consciousness of millions who watched his life evaporate under the knee of a police officer, but in the throes of national outrage and despair, the House of Representatives took up the mantle to address racial inequities in policing and passed a sweeping reform bill that is not expected to survive in the Senate.
Passed by a vote of 236-181 and sponsored by Karen Bass, a California Democrat and chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was met with fierce resistance by House Republicans.
GOP lawmakers took issue with the legislation’s key platforms, including its outright ban on carotid holds, its prohibition of no knock warrants in drug cases and its creation of a national registry for police misconduct — an initiative that would make it harder for problematic officers to jump jurisdictions without comprehensive tracing of their work history.
From the steps of Capitol Hill Thursday morning, exactly one month since Floyd was killed, chairwoman Bass underlined why the House was adamant the bill retain its current provisions.
“On May 25, 2020, our world changed,” Bass said. “This time was different. This time the video just couldn't be questioned. The slow murder of George Floyd that took place over eight minutes and 46 seconds was just not up for speculation.”
Amid the tragedy of Floyd’s death and the subsequent outcry, it put front and center the pain and the “private ritual” of “the talk," Bass said, noting the shared experience among black families warning each other to mind their behavior and “do whatever they are told, no matter how humiliating.”
“Because if you don’t, you might not survive,” Bass remarked.
The legislation seeks to end that ritual and reshape the way police protect and serve.
While it is not expected to pass in the Senate where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a day earlier relegated it as the product of partisanship “elevated to an art form,” the bill has 36 Senate cosponsors.
The passage of the Floyd Act leaves the Senate with two choices, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said: “To honor George Floyd’s life or do nothing.”
Tension between the congressional bodies stems from a fundamental dispute over the path forward to equitable and safe policing.
Senate Democrats blocked the GOP’s proposed Justice Act, but a parliamentary procedure invoked by McConnell kept the chance to debate the law’s merits alive and it could still be reanimated in some form on the Senate floor.
Republicans on Thursday focused largely on procedural issues related to the drafting of the bill in its early stages, pointing to a contested Judiciary Committee hearing last week where they offered 12 amendments, all of which were defeated.
When arguments for procedures ceased, Republicans like Tom McClintock of California, Louie Gohmert of Texas and Debbie Lesko of Arizona dismissed the Floyd Act as an infeasible Democratic wish list.
“There are racists of every color, of every society. It’s the baser society of human nature. No one has tried harder to ostracize their racists than Americans,” McClintock said.
Lesko echoed similar sentiments saying “all lives matter” from the floor before Gohmert railed against “Marxist crimewaves.”
Others, like Texas Republican Will Hurd, who will retire next year, said by passing the Floyd Act instead of negotiating amendments, America was “missing its opportunity to do their part from preventing another black person from dying in police custody.”
“Whether your skin is black or your uniform is blue, you should not feel targeted in this country,” Hurd said.
The lawmaker would eventually vote in favor of the bill, along with two other Republicans, Congressmen Fred Upton and Brian Fitzpatrick.
