Passage of the House Democrats’ far-reaching police overhaul bill returned attention to the Senate on Friday, as the divided Congress struggles to address the global outcry over the killings of George Floyd and other Black Americans.
Congress is now at a familiar impasse despite protests outside their door and polling that shows Americans overwhelmingly want changes after the deaths of Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others in interactions with law enforcement.
In the month since Floyd’s May 25 death, funeral services were held for Rayshard Brooks, a Black man shot and killed by police in Atlanta.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican senator, who drafted the GOP package, said Thursday that his bill is now “closer to the trash can than it’s ever been.”
Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said hundreds of thousands of people “in every state in the union” are marching in the streets to make sure Floyd “will not be just another Black man dead at the hands of the police.”
