One Republican lawmaker voted in favor of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, shocking many, but it was later revealed to have been an accident.
Texas GOP Rep. Lance Gooden, a staunch pro-Trump conservative, voted in favor of the policing overhaul bill on Wednesday that would ban chokeholds, limit qualified immunity for officers, and lower the criminal intent standards, among other reforms. The congressman went on social media to explain the vote shortly thereafter, saying it was unintentional.
“I accidentally pressed the wrong voting button and realized it too late,” he wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “I have changed the official record to reflect my opposition to the partisan George Floyd Policing Act.”
Gooden’s initial vote did not affect the outcome of the bill, which passed 220-212.
The bill, if it becomes law, would also establish new requirements for law enforcement officers and agencies, including training recruits on implicit bias and racial profiling, force them to wear body cameras, and it would create a national registry to compile data on police misconduct.
Police conduct and use of force have become hot-button issues over the last year or so. The deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, both of whom were black and died at the hands of law enforcement officers in 2020, led to nationwide protests highlighting the issue of police conduct specifically in regards to the black community within the United States.
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The last Congress passed the same bill last summer following nationwide Black Lives Matter protests.
This measure faces rough terrain in the Senate, in a chamber divided 50-50 where Vice President Kamala Harris would cast the tiebreaking vote in the event of a dead split. Unless the Senate filibuster, effectively requiring 60 votes for passage, is eliminated, Republicans would be able to block the proposal.
