It felt like the nation waited with bated breath this week as the jury deliberated – and then delivered – three guilty verdicts in ex-police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial in the death of George Floyd.
But in Washington, Congress’ latest efforts to answer this seemingly intractable issue, via a bipartisan, sweeping police reform bill, have hit stumbling blocks. That includes a major split over Democrats’ efforts to make it easier to criminally prosecute police officers. GOP Sen. Tim Scott called the change “off the table for me.”
There was some common ground between the parties, at least in the upper chamber. The Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill denouncing discrimination against Asian communities in the United States and creating a new position at the Justice Department to expedite reviews of potential Covid-19-related hate crimes.
The lone dissenting vote came from Missouri’s Republican Sen. Josh Hawley – which is a whole other story. The bill now goes to the House before being signed into law by President Joe Biden.
Congressional Republicans also rolled out their own infrastructure proposal, and they’re keeping it traditional by largely limiting it to roads, bridges, ports and broadband. The price tag also includes fewer zeros: a just-shy-of $600 billion cost estimate – still dwarfed by Democrats’ multi-trillion-dollar proposal.
Biden made another big move on the global stage – virtually, it is still a pandemic, after all – by recommitting the United States to significantly reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, as outlined by the Paris climate accord.
The Point: Whether in life or in Congress, tackling big issues with people you don’t always agree with is hard! But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done.