Biden to meet privately with Floyd family as policing reform remains a challenge - ABC News (go.com)
They're still discussing in Congress how to reform the police. The House passed a bill, but it's stalled in the Senate due to Republican opposition.
Biden was hoping they would pass legislation by the anniversary of Floyd's death, but they missed that deadline.
The House bill aimed to "increase law enforcement accountability by ending no-knock warrants, banning chokeholds, creating a national registry for police misconduct and seeking to end qualified immunity."
Apparently, the main sticky point is ending qualified immunity.
I'm not sure why they're having a dispute over qualified immunity. As police officers and lawyers are so fond of saying, if they don't break the law, they have nothing to worry about.
President Joe Biden is set to meet with members of George Floyd's family at the White House Tuesday, to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Floyd's death while in police custody in Minneapolis.
The meeting, which will happen behind closed doors at the White House, will provide an opportunity for Biden to have a "real conversation" with the family, press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.
But even as Biden will take in the family's hopes and concerns around police brutality, the political reality for Biden is a stark one: one year after an event he described as "a wake-up call to the nation" to address issues of policing reform and criminal justice, little has changed.
"We want something coming out of Washington. We want something that will change federal law," the Rev. Al Sharpton, an advocate of police reform and adviser to the Floyd family, said at a rally in Minneapolis Sunday. "There's been an adjournment on justice for too long. It's time for them to vote and make this the law."
Among those attending the White House meeting are Floyd's siblings Terrence, Philonise, Bridget and Rodney, as well as Floyd's daughter Gianna, who once told Biden her father would "change the world."
They're still discussing in Congress how to reform the police. The House passed a bill, but it's stalled in the Senate due to Republican opposition.
"It has been a long year. It has been a painful year," Floyd said. "It has been very frustrating for me and my family for our lives to change in the blink of an eye -- I still don't know why."
The House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act in March. It aims to increase law enforcement accountability by ending no-knock warrants, banning chokeholds, creating a national registry for police misconduct and seeking to end qualified immunity. However, it has yet to be considered in the Senate, where it would need support from at least 10 Republicans to pass.
A trio of bipartisan lawmakers -- Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. -- have been engaged in negotiations over the legislation for weeks, working to bridge the divide between the House-passed Floyd bill, and a Republican-backed proposal Scott put forward in the wake of Floyd's death that Democrats rejected, arguing the legislation did not go far enough.
The president elevated the issue during his joint address to Congress -- his highest-profile remarks to date.
"My fellow Americans, we have to come together to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the people they serve, to root out systemic racism in our criminal justice system, and to enact police reform in George Floyd's name that passed the House already," Biden said in April. "We need to work together to find a consensus. But let's get it done next month, by the first anniversary of George Floyd's death."
Biden was hoping they would pass legislation by the anniversary of Floyd's death, but they missed that deadline.
The House bill aimed to "increase law enforcement accountability by ending no-knock warrants, banning chokeholds, creating a national registry for police misconduct and seeking to end qualified immunity."
Apparently, the main sticky point is ending qualified immunity.
The two sides have yet to find consensus over one of the thorniest disagreements -- the issue of so-called "qualified immunity" for police officers that would make it easier for civil lawsuits to be brought against them.
MORE: Policing reform talks hit setback over qualified immunity, but negotiators plow on
"They're continuing to have good discussions. And that is a positive sign. So, you know, we are not going to slow our -- slow our efforts to get this done. But, we can also be transparent about the fact that it's gonna take a little bit more time. That sometimes -- that happens, and that's OK," Psaki said.
The White House did not give an updated deadline on when it would like to see the bill passed, saying only that Biden would like to "sign it into law as quickly as possible."
I'm not sure why they're having a dispute over qualified immunity. As police officers and lawyers are so fond of saying, if they don't break the law, they have nothing to worry about.