House Democrats are advancing their anti-police agenda, passing the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act” last night in a 220-212 vote. Only one Republican voted for the bill (which turned out to be accidental) while 219 Democrats voted in favor. Two Democrats opposed the bill.
The legislation is wide ranging, banning no-knock warrants, mandating data collection on police encounters, and prohibiting racial and religious profiling. One part of the bill that “redirects funding to community-based policing programs” gives the “defund the police” movement exactly what they want.
The bill was co-sponsored by far-left Rep. Karen Bass, who once eulogized the Communist Party USA leader.
As reported by the Daily Wire:
“Democrats just voted to defund the police,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said in a statement. “The unfunded mandates in their bill, H.R. 1280, would cost police departments hundreds of millions of dollars—the equivalent of taking 3,000 cops or more off the streets. Our men and women in uniform deserve better.”
Jason Smith and Jim Jordan sent a letter to the CBO director to list their issues with the bill:
“It is our understanding that H.R. 1280 contains provisions that significantly violate the current Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA) threshold of $85 million,” the letter stated. “It is further our understanding that these provisions may in fact result in additional costs to state, local, and tribal governments totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars which would deprive these localities of the resources needed to provide adequate policing and public safety services in their communities.”
“We respectfully ask that CBO provide a detailed estimate of the total cost that the mandates included in H.R. 1280 would impose on state, local, and tribal governments if it were enacted into law,” the letter concluded.
The bill will face strong opposition in the Senate, with Democrats’ only chance of a Republican voting in favor being another accidental vote. Meanwhile, Democrat Joe Manchin has explicitly opposed the “defund the police” movement, meaning his party won’t have enough votes to pass out.
Defund the police? Defund, my butt. I'm a proud West Virginia Democrat. We are the party of working men and women. We want to protect Americans' jobs & healthcare. We do not have some crazy socialist agenda, and we do not believe in defunding the police. https://t.co/EIFHX5OQ37
— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) November 11, 2020
How the rest of Senate Democrats vote on this bill will be interesting in light of how they voted on a “defund the police” resolution last month during a marathon voting session. Republicans took advantage of a Senate procedure that allowed them to propose a series of amendments to the budget resolution to force Democrats to take a stand on a series of tough issues. The Senate voted across party lines on most amendments, but one had the Senate vote 100-0, and it was Sen. John Cornyn’s opposing the defunding of police.
My amendment to #BackTheBlue and defend, not defund, the police passed the Senate overwhelmingly tonight by vote of 100-0
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) February 5, 2021
How will they vote now that an actual bill is in front of them? We’ll see – but fortunately it won’t pass regardless thanks to Manchin and Senate Republicans.
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