As anniversary of George Floyd’s death approaches, Sen. Corey Booker is optimistic on police reform bill

The outlook for Congress passing significant police reform legislation is promising, even if lawmakers are unlikely to meet this week’s deadline set by President Biden, a prominent Senate Democrat said on Sunday.

Biden has said he wanted the reform bill approved by Tuesday, the one-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed at the hands of Minneapolis police.

While that deadline is likely to be missed, Democrats are working on compromises to get Republicans on board with the legislation, Sen. Corey Booker (D-N.J.) said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“We’re making meaningful progress, and I’m committed. We have to have a nation where we end what I think has been a more-revealed anguish and agony of many Americans,” Booker said.

The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, passed in the Democrat-controlled House in March, would put an end to qualified immunity that shields cops from civil lawsuits, ban police use of chokeholds, establish a national database of police misconduct and prohibit religious and racial profiling.

Proposed changes to qualified immunity have emerged as a point of contention in lawmakers’ negotiations, with Republicans saying they are opposed.

Booker said he wasn’t giving up on the proposed changes to qualified immunity.

“We need to at some point get qualified immunity. It’s what I’m determined at this negotiating table to get,” said the senator.

Rep. James Clyburn, the Democratic House majority whip, has said he is willing to see a compromise on qualified immunity to get the reform measures passed.

Democrats control the Senate by a razor-thin margin of one vote.

Biden was set to host family members of Floyd at the White House on Tuesday to commemorate the anniversary of his death, according to media reports.

Details of the planned visit were not immediately available.