With Donald Trump largely out of sight, hidden in the White House behind newly erected chain-link fencing, America has been left to wade through days of unrest with a keyboard warrior—not a president—in charge. As the leadership vacuum widens and protests engulf the country, Democrats in Congress are working to convert the passion and fury of the protests into concrete proposals for change. Now, after days of discussions and debate within the caucus, Nancy Pelosi is poised to unveil a slate of policing reforms on Monday. But it remains unclear whether the package, in part or in its entirety, will become law, or merely languish by dint of a reluctant Republican caucus.
The Congressional Black Caucus, chaired by Congresswoman Karen Bass, has led the legislative effort in the House. Working in lockstep with the Judiciary Committee and leadership, the CBC has sifted through dozens of bills over the past week in search of a legislative remedy. Many of the proposals they are considering have been on ice for years, written in the wake of previous incidents of police violence. Of the package to be released on Monday, Pelosi told reporters, “We want to see this as a time where we can go forward in a very drastic way. Not incrementally but in an important way to address those problems.”
So far, a number of proposals have gained traction. Bass, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Barbara Lee introduced a resolution to denounce police brutality, racial profiling, and excessive force, which one senior Democratic aide said should be the “bare minimum.” A bill to ban the police use of chokeholds from Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, which he introduced after New York City police killed Eric Garner, is expected to be included in the slate of legislation. A series of bills Congressman Hank Johnson introduced after the Ferguson protests have similarly gained renewed attention. Justin Amash—a former Republican, now an independent—alongside Pressley, has introduced a bill that would strip police officers of qualified immunity, which shields them from civil lawsuits. A spate of other bills to address excessive force and to create an independent body to investigate police brutality have also been under consideration.
The effort comes as the country grapples with a crisis within a crisis—widespread unrest over the killing of Black Americans amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has disproportionately affected communities of color. “Living while Black during COVID-19 has just been devastating,” a Democratic aide told me. “While we were dealing with the disproportionate death rate, there was harassment that started and Black people were being assaulted by police and in some cases arrested for not wearing masks, or for not doing the public health recommendation of social distancing,” Bass said in a Democratic caucus call earlier this week. “We had the three murders, and so it’s kind of like you know all of these events at one time, a pandemic upon a pandemic.”
Given the Democratic majority, Pelosi’s package will certainly pass the House. But it is unclear whether it will garner Republican support. On Thursday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy signaled he might be open to it, telling reporters he believes Republicans and Democrats can “find common ground” and adding, “I believe this is a moment for us.” But that hardly suggests an appetite for sweeping police reform.
A call between Bass and the Problem Solvers Caucus on Wednesday provided something of a preview as to where this common ground might be found. Tom Reed, the Republican cochair of the bipartisan caucus, described it to me as “one of the most powerful conversations” he’s had as a member of Congress. Reed noted a number of policy proposals where he thinks bipartisan consensus can be reached. Among them was using federal dollars to incentivize good policing, a system that would track and prevent bad actors from moving to other police forces without accountability and an independent investigative body. “This is not going to be cured by one magic legislative solution,” Reed told me. “It’s just not, it’s going to be cured by a cultural shift. It’s going to be cured by doing the work that’s necessary to follow up on this stuff and to make sure it doesn’t get sidetracked.”