Democrats on Tuesday bucked calls to defund the police and proposed a nearly $1 billion increase for law enforcement in the annual Justice Department spending bill.
Roughly $600 million of the extra money would help implement changes to training and policies at police departments, advancing racial justice plans even as they bolster police. The funds would provide more resources for training, community relations and investigations, but would also get dangled as incentives to curb policing policies opposed by the Democrats.
Rep. Jose E. Serrano, New York Democrat and chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee responsible for the bill, hailed it an “urgent and necessary process” to overhaul police practices.
“The bill boosts spending to address police misconduct, enforce civil rights and promote racial justice, all while protecting and expanding funding for critical programs in a wide range of areas,” he said.
The proposed $33.2 billion spending bill for the 2021 fiscal year, which begins in October, would increase the Justice Department’s budget by $972.5 million. Of the added funds, $596.7 million would go to overhauling police practice.
The remaining funds would be used to boost the FBI’s investigations into cybercrime, cyberthreats, and human trafficking as well expanding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ ballistics database to help fight violent gun crimes.
Democrats want to force departments to change practices by tying Justice Department grant money to overhauls.
Since George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, congressional efforts to legislate police practices have hit a partisan impasse.
House Democrats passed a bill last month named after Floyd that they say will address allegations of police brutality. Their efforts stalled in the GOP-controlled Senate, where Democrats blocked the Republicans’ proposal.
The spending bill laid down House Democrats’ second ante in the policing debate. The spending measures also need to get through the Senate.
The bill would spend $400 million to heighten independent reviews of local departments, including funds to probe alleged police misconduct.
Other funds include $50 million for training state and local law enforcement on best practices, $27.2 million to improve reporting on use-of-force incidents and $4 million to implement civilian review boards.
The bill would ban federal funds from going to police forces that don’t ban chokeholds, no-knock warrants and other methods that have come under fire in recent weeks.
Lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee will hold a markup Wednesday to debate the budget proposal. Specific provisions could change over the legislative process.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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