(CNN) — Democrats put forward sweeping legislation Monday aimed at cracking down on police brutality and recording patterns of misuse of force across the country, the first concrete step toward action from Washington as a national movement emerges.
The legislation — which was led by the Congressional Black Caucus, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee and Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey — comes as the country is reeling from the recent deaths of several black Americans at the hands of the police, including George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis last month after a white police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.
The anti-lynching bill sparked an emotional debate on the Senate floor last week when Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky attempted to amend the legislation, which he argued was too broad.
While Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced last week that he would hold a hearing on police brutality on June 16, many Republicans in the Senate have argued Congress should not be setting nationalized policing policies and that instead, states and localities should take their own actions.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday that Senate Democrats will “fight like hell to make this a reality” and pass the police reform legislation in the Senate, appealing directly to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
