Drafting and introduction in 2021 In the
House of Representatives, the legislation was principally drafted by Representative
Karen Bass of
California (who chairs the
Congressional Black Caucus) and Representative
Jerrold Nadler of New York (who chairs the
House Judiciary Committee); in the Senate, the legislation has been drafted by
Cory Booker of New Jersey and
Kamala Harris of California, the Senate's two black Democrats. The bill was referred to the
House Judiciary Committee, and additionally to the
House Armed Services Committee and
House Energy and Commerce Committee, for consideration of provisions falling within those committees' jurisdiction. It was referred to the
Senate Judiciary Committee.
Committee hearings At a June 2020 hearing on police issues in the House Judiciary Committee, George Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, testified in favor of police reforms. Also testifying were the Floyd family's attorney
Benjamin Crump (invited by the Democrats) and Angela Underwood Jacobs (invited by the Republicans), the brother of
Federal Protective Service officer David "Patrick" Underwood, who was
killed in the line of duty. Committee Republicans invited conservative
Fox News commentator and ex-Secret Service agent
Dan Bongino, who did not mention
police brutality at the hearing and instead focused on dangers faced by police. At a
Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on June 16, members heard testimony from a number of witnesses, including
Vanita Gupta of the
Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; attorney S. Lee Merritt, who represents the family of
Ahmaud Arbery;
St. Paul, Minnesota Mayor
Melvin Carter;
Houston Police Department chief
Art Acevedo; and
Fraternal Order of Police national president Patrick Yoes. Gupta, who served as head of the
U.S. Department of Justice's
Civil Rights Division during the
Obama administration, testified in favor of police reforms and criticized the Trump Justice Department, while Yoes testified against restricting
qualified immunity for police. On June 17, 2020, after a nearly 12-hour debate, the
House Judiciary Committee advanced the bill to the House floor on a party-line vote (with all Democrats voting yes and all Republicans voting no).On the floor, the bill passed the Democratic-controlled House on a mostly
party-line vote of 236–181. The legislation's key sponsors sought to garner support for the bill from
moderate Republicans,
Congressional gridlock and blockage in the Senate The bill never advanced in 2020, due to opposition by Republicans, who then controlled the Senate. Republican senators led by
Tim Scott proposed alternative police legislation that was far narrower than the House bill favored by Democrats. The Scott bill would introduce incentives for states and localities to change police practices (by limiting chokeholds and promoting the use of body cameras), but would not restrict the qualified-immunity doctrine, and thus becoming
gridlocked. It passed the House on a nearly-party line vote of 220–212 on March 3, 2021. No Republicans supported the legislation. The legislation did not advance in the Senate, bipartisan negotiations took place between Bass, Scott, and Booker, but collapsed by September 2021. In announcing that negotiations had failed, Booker said that the parties were unable to agree about the fate of
qualified immunity for police departments and officers and that Republicans were unwilling to agree to a national database to track police misconduct.
Voting summary ==Support and opposition==