“This bill will not be signed into law. It was done to make a point, rather than making a difference.”
Congressman Mike Garcia’s (R, CA-25), one of the two newest members of Congress, stated the above quote as part of his remarks after he voted against H.R. 7120, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act on Thursday.
The table for the passage of the partisan legislation in the House yesterday was set back on June 8, when both House and Senate Democratic leadership with the Congressional Black Caucus announced H.R. 7120, after doing this hideous display of political correctness.
6/8/20
After Senate Republicans introduced their own Police Reform bill sponsored by Senator Tim Scott (R, SC), the Senate Democrats successfully filibustered the legislation on Wednesday, with two Democrats and one independent joining Republicans coming up four votes short. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell voted with opposition as a parliamentary move.
So the House bill was brought up on Thursday, and predictably, Congressman Sean Casten and Congresswoman Lauren Underwood voted with the House Democratic leadership on another one of too many partisan votes.
Casten’s floor speech is below via Twitter:
The final vote grid for passage is below:
While Casten did not issue a press release after the vote, Underwood did calling the passage “bipartisan” by virtue of 3 Republicans voting for it:
“Our nation is facing a critical moment.
“Thousands of Illinoisans have taken to the streets, in the middle of a deadly pandemic, to demand our attention. It is Congress’s job to deliver policy solutions that answer this call for change.
“Today, with the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, we take a crucial step forward by addressing serious flaws in our policing system. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues toward a safer and more equitable future.”
Congresswoman Lauren Underwood statement 6/25/20
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With the Senate Democrats’ filibustering Republican police reform efforts, and the Democrats passing a partisan package, Underwood’s “step” is the only step taken, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) will not consider the House bill as Democrats refuse to negotiate anything.
Republicans’ points were summed up best by Mike Garcia, and his entire Twitter thread is transcribed for ease of reading:
“I just voted NO on the Democrat-led, hyper-partisan bill called ‘George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020.’
“There were several elements in this bill that I support — recognizing we need to eradicate racism in this country, barring chokeholds, making lynching a federal crime; requiring body cams for federal officers, and creating a national database for police misconduct.
“But, because the Democrats did not allow amendments or meaningful discussion and cooperation on this bill, we ended up with a bill that is riddled with poison pills that will ultimately hurt our nation rather than making us better. There were elements in this bill that I could not support as they will lead to less policing, not better policing.
“The removal of qualified immunity and the termination of the DOD surplus program to local police departments will ultimately lead to fewer police, lower-quality police, and more crime.
“As your representative to Congress, I cannot support a bill that ultimately makes us all more vulnerable. We need to remove bad cops and prevent these racist tragedies from happening again.
“Congress needs to work together for bipartisan solutions that will lead to meaningful change. Today’s bill was not that, but rather a political messaging stunt. This bill will not be signed into law. It was done to make a point, rather than making a difference.
“Nancy Pelosi called all Republicans murderers this week and prevented meaningful compromise on this critical discussion. I believe this is conduct unbecoming of someone serving in Congress.
“America deserves better, and you deserve to have your interests represented through productive debate. That is why I believe the House should take up The JUSTICE Act, which I co-sponsored . . . It can and will bring meaningful change and realistic solutions.”
Congressman Mike Garcia statement through Twitter, 6/25/20 after House vote
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The second to last paragraph alludes to a statement House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, CA-12) made earlier in the week, which is better explained in this FOX Business interview with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R, CA-23):
Pelosi should be caged
“The removal of qualified immunity and the termination of the DOD surplus program to local police departments will ultimately lead to fewer police, lower-quality police, and more crime.”
BS.
DEMOCRATS are a farce composed of various violent subversive groups
and other assorted degenerates who seek to overthrow America
and institute a lawless NWO.
Got guns & plenty of ammo yet ?
You better have because CW2 is already here, more people are now woke
to that fact.
I wonder why Casten mentioned Trayvon?
He wasn’t killed by a white police officer, he was killed in legitimate self defense by a civilian who was half Hispanic and half Jewish.
Meanwhile, at state level :
Putting things on “automatic” just makes life so much easier in Illinois, at least for the state’s leaders.
No need to make politically unpopular decisions, because that state gasoline tax automatically goes up on July 1.
Same for lawmakers giving themselves $1,800 raises while being able to claim: “We didn’t vote for those. They were automatic.”
And so it is for Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
He doesn’t need any courage to face the state’s biggest government worker union and speak the truth about COVID-19 shutdowns blowing a $6 billion hole in the state’s revenues.
On July 1 there will be $261 million in raises going to members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, automatically.
Nearly 1 in 4 Illinoisans is out of a job.
Many are still fighting the state’s Rube Goldberg machine of an unemployment system to get the federal money they were promised.
So how fair is it that some of the highest-paid state employees in the nation are getting a raise that must be funded by an economically wounded bunch of taxpayers?
Pritzker dismissed the idea of delaying the state worker raises: “That’s not something that we’re currently having discussions about,” he said in late April.
But other governors, and specifically other Democratic governors, have taken action to preserve scarce cash as they deal with extra costs and crumbling tax bases thanks to the pandemic.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is canceling a 3% pay hike for some state employees and forcing one-day-a-week furloughs on 40,000 others to handle a nearly $9 billion shortfall.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo delayed raises for 80,000 state workers for 90 days, and is now considering employee buyouts. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam pushed back state worker raises, and Pennsylvania Gov.
Tom Wolf stopped paying 9,000 state workers on April 11.
Yet Illinois won’t even talk about public workers sharing some of the public’s pain.
Instead, unemployed Illinoisans get put on hold for hours by the state and then cut off by a recorded message.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security has been an embarrassment throughout the COVID-19 shutdown.
After weeks of excuses, Pritzker cobbled together fixes that included a $22 million, no-bid contract that took almost two months just to get federal money provided in late March into the hands of self-employed workers.
The new system promptly exposed Social Security numbers of 32,483 applicants, and led to identity theft according to a federal lawsuit in St. Clair County.
Meanwhile, millions of dollars in state worker pay raises flow like water.
Illinois was a financial pit before COVID-19, driven mainly by overly generous public employee salaries and public pension spending handed out by the public servants whose campaigns were so generously supported by those public employees.
Illinois state workers in 2017 were the second-highest paid in the U.S. after adjusting for cost of living, averaging $61,207.
More than half of them will become retirement millionaires as Illinois spends nearly double the national average, or more than 25% of the state’s operating budget, on pension costs.
The state’s pension crisis is driven in part by 3% compounded annual pension raises, which are – you guessed it – automatic.
Amending the Illinois Constitution could control those costs, and save the state’s five pension systems from either failing retirees or continuing to cost taxpayers ever more for fewer services.
To get there Pritzker and state lawmakers need to take action, but that’s not something that they’re currently having discussions about.
Illinoisans cannot expect solutions if leaders automatically respond to the same old problems with the same unthinking behaviors.
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/automatic-state-worker-pay-hikes-gas-tax-hike-coming-to-illinois-july-1/
One again, John Lopez attempts to redefine bipartisan.
Also, once again, John Lopez makes a partisan attack that he never levels at the other side.
If this is a farce, because the Senate won’t pass it, why don’t you ever say that the bills that the SGOP files are a farce?
Oh, and this: “as Democrats refuse to negotiate anything.”
That’s cute… but the Republicans have not indicated any desire or intention to negotiate either.
This is despicable.. they should all be Fired!
wasting my tax $$$$
When Underrat is brought around for public pillorying in 2025 for her many disgusting acts, I promise not to throw anything bigger or harder than golf balls.
But her problem is I have thousands of them.
It sounds like neither wants to negotiate so that they can do nothing, point fingers at each other, raise money, and so on.
Serious question, because I don’t know too much about this and am curious, what is wrong with getting rid of qualified immunity?
Give me an answer other than “cops oppose it.”
Exactly right Alabama.
When Dems pass a bill that has no chance of becoming law then the bill is a “farce” or a “stunt.”
If Republicans do it then it’s “taking a stand” or “staking a position” or “letting voters understand their position” or “establishing a distinction.”
Whatever.
LOL this headline and post.
Will Hurd was one of the three Republican Congressmen who voted with the Dems on the Justice in Policing Ace.
Trivia Question: What makes Will Hurd unique from every other Republican Member in the House of Representatives?
What a jerk is this guy Casten for bringing up Trayvon. That appears to be race baiting. As Billy Bob had related, the Trayvon case was decided in a court of law. Casten is the guy who made the outrageous and ridiculous statement that the taking of a life through abortion is similar to removing a diseased gall bladder.