WASHINGTON (AP) — After a policing overhaul collapsed in the Senate, House Democrats returned to Washington for a day heavy with emotion and symbolism to vote on their sweeping proposal to address the global outcry over the death of George Floyd and other Black Americans.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gathered early Thursday with members of the Congressional Black Caucus on the Capitol steps to challenge Congress not to allow the deaths to have been in vain or the outpouring of public support for law enforcement changes to go unmatched.
Republicans are lined up squarely behind their effort, led by Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the lone Black GOP senator, who has personal experience of racism at the hands of police.
The two bills, the House and Senate versions, would ultimately need to be the same to become law.
Instead, Senate Democrats are withholding their votes as leverage, believing once the House Democrats pass their bill, Senate Republicans, facing a groundswell of public sentiment, will have no choice but to negotiate.
