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WASHINGTON - Tim Scott, the only black Republican member of the U.S. Senate, said on Sunday he is open to exploring whether to enact a new law that would decertify bad police officers as part of a larger law enforcement reform package.

Speaking on CBS "Face the Nation," Scott said a new policy to decertify police who engage in misconduct could be a compromise as he negotiates with Democrats, who have called more drastic measures such as ending the "qualified immunity" legal doctrine which helps shield officers from liability.

"I think there's a way for us to deal with it," he said. "Decertification would be a path that I would be interested in looking at."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last week tapped Scott to oversee the drafting of new policing reform legislation in response to public outrage over high profile police killings of African Americans including George Floyd, who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck.

Floyd's death has led to protests in cities and smaller communities nationwide, as well as rallies in countries around the world, with demonstrators demanding legislative change to combat racial injustice and hold police more accountable.

In the latest case to trigger anger among activists, protesters shut down a major highway in Atlanta on Saturday and burned down a Wendy's restaurant where a black man was shot dead by police as he tried to escape arrest.

Democrats who control the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled their own draft legislation last week which would allow victims of police misconduct to sue officers for damages, ban chokeholds, require the use of body cameras by federal law enforcement officers, and restrict the use of lethal force.

Scott is due to unveil his own draft this week.

On Sunday he said the Republican party viewed eliminating qualified immunity as a "poison pill" but he still felt optimistic that a compromise could be reached.

He also cited other areas of reform he is considering, including requiring police departments to provide the Justice Department with more data on excessive use of force, mandated de-escalation training and provisions to deal with police misconduct.

"If we could blend those three together, we might actually save hundreds of lives and improve the relationship between the communities of color and the law enforcement community."

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Lone Black Republican Senator Says He Is Open to 'Decertification' of Bad Police - Voice of America

After two weeks of police violence and protests, Republican politicians have been pretending to have a fainting spell over the phrase defund the police.

There wont be defunding, said a pearl-clutching Donald Trump, as Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and House minority leader Kevin McCarthy similarly faked outrage over protesters pushing public officials to reevaluate the nations bloated $115 billion police budget.

Republican leaders would have us believe they love law enforcement and cops, but that is belied by an unmentioned fact: These are the same greedheads who have eagerly pushed to defund the police charged with protecting us from the worlds most dangerous and powerful criminals.

Specifically, they have pushed to defund:

The US Chemical Safety Board, which polices major industrial accidents.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which polices corporations compliance with civil rights laws.

The Consumer Products Safety Commission, which polices industries to make sure their products dont harm or kill people. The agency now acknowledges that its funding level has been insufficient to keep pace with the evolving consumer product marketplace.

The Internal Revenue Service, which polices the tax system and which is responsible for making sure the wealthy and large corporations pay the taxes they owe. Thanks to this successful effort to defund the police, the agency conducted 675,000 fewer audits in 2017 than it did in 2010, a drop in the audit rate of 42 percent, according to ProPublica. With 30,000 fewer tax cops on the beat, a recent Treasury Department report found that 800,000 high-income households have not paid more than $45 billion in owed taxes.

The Department of Labor, which polices employers and makes sure they arent stealing wages, breaking workplace safety rules, ignoring overtime laws, and/or violating workers union rights. Amid this particular Republican effort to defund the police, there are now fewer cops scrutinizing employers than ever before and workplace inspections have plummeted as workplace injuries, deaths and disasters have increased.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which polices the accounting industry.

The Securities and Exchange Commissions reserve fund, which was established after the financial crisis to bolster the agencys work policing Wall Street. The agency reports that the number of law enforcement staff supporting our investigation and litigation efforts remained almost 9 percent lower today than it was at the start of Trumps term and now white collar prosecutions have hit a historic low.

The law enforcement agencies that police corporate mergers. This effort to defund the antitrust police has come as mergers have accelerated (and there has been some recent effort to reverse the defunding).

The independent law enforcement agency that policed agribusiness monopolies.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which polices the financial industry and works to protect consumers from fraud.

The law enforcement offices that police federal agencies and root out waste, fraud and abuse.

The federal program that polices local law enforcement agencies.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which is responsible for policing polluters. Trumps first budget proposed to reduce EPA spending on civil and criminal enforcement by almost 60 percent, and laying off 200 environmental cops, according to the New York Times. By the middle of Trumps first year in office, the EPA had fewer than half of the criminal special agents on the job during the George W. Bush administration, according to one environmental advocacy group. Bloomberg News noted that Trumps most recent budget cuts could hamper the EPAs efforts to link contamination at hazardous waste sites to companies and others that may be responsible for the pollution. The result: environmental prosecutions have now hit a historic low.

Trump has called himself the president of law and order, but these efforts to defund the police have created lawlessness and disorder. And yet, that hasnt been mentioned by the politicians and pundits pretending to be scandalized by protesters demands for a change in criminal justice priorities.

Apparently, were expected to be horrified by proposals to reduce funding for the militarized police forces that are violently attacking peaceful protesters but were supposed to obediently accept the defunding of the police forces responsible for protecting the population from the wealthy and powerful.

David Sirota is a Guardian US columnist and Jacobin editor at large who served as Bernie Sanders presidential campaign speechwriter. He also publishes the Too Much Information newsletter, where a version of this article first appeared

Originally posted here:
Republicans are hypocrites. They happily 'de-funded' the police we actually need - The Guardian

Eighteen New York Republicans, including close allies of President TrumpDonald John TrumpRon Perlman, Matt Gaetz get into back-and-forth on Twitter The NYT and the Cotton op-ed: Opinion or party line? Robert Gates joins calls for Army bases named after Confederate leaders to be renamed MORE like Reps. Lee ZeldinLee ZeldinNY Republicans call on McConnell to provide .9B in additional MTA funding Flynn urged Russian diplomat to have 'reciprocal' response to Obama sanctions, new transcripts show The Hill's Coronavirus Report: Surgeon General stresses need to invest much more in public health infrastructure, during and after COVID-19; Fauci hopeful vaccine could be deployed in December MORE and Elise StefanikElise Marie StefanikNY Republicans call on McConnell to provide .9B in additional MTA funding Bipartisan House bill seeks to improve pandemic preparedness The Hill's Coronavirus Report: Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga says supporting small business single most important thing we should do now; Teva's Brendan O'Grady says U.S. should stockpile strategic reserve in drugs like Strategic Oil Reserve MORE, signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellNY Republicans call on McConnell to provide .9B in additional MTA funding GOP struggles to confront racial issues Navarro floats T price tag for next coronavirus relief bill MORE (R-Ky.) calling for an additional $3.9 billion in funding for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) in the next round of stimulus.

Although the CARES Act provided about $4 billion to the public transit system, the Thursday letter states, the sum is not enough to cover its needs.

"New York has been the epicenter of this crisis in the United States," the letter states. "The essential workers on the frontlines who have rightly received so much praise and appreciation depend on mass transit to get to their critical jobs. Healthcare providers, pharmacists, first responders and grocery store workers cannot be left stranded at the time when theyre needed most."

Other signers of the letter include Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) and New York City Councilman Joe Borelli (R) an honorary state chair for the presidents 2020 campaign, as well as John J. Flanagan and Will Barclay, the Republican leaders in the state Senate and Assembly.

The MTAs financial future is at risk without federal relief. COVID-19 has blown a massive hole in its budget. The global consulting firm McKinsey & Co. estimates the full 2020 impact to be between $7 billion and $8.5 billion due to massive revenue losses caused by disappearing ridership and the evaporation of state and local taxes that support the MTA, the letter states. The agency has run out of avenues for support. Without assistance from Washington, the only option left for repayment of the MTAs debt is fare and toll hikes. We can't put this burden on our constituents when so many have lost their jobs.

In addition to its financial shortfalls, the pandemic has forced the MTA to make unprecedented procedural changes, including temporarily ending 24-hour subway services to disinfect trains between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. Gov. Andrew CuomoAndrew CuomoNY Republicans call on McConnell to provide .9B in additional MTA funding Cuomo threatens to reverse localities' reopening, singling out Manhattan and Hamptons Protesters turn out in DC for third consecutive weekend MORE (D) said in April that during the pandemic, ridership on the subway, a major vector of virus transmission in the city, was down 92 percent.

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NY Republicans call on McConnell to provide $3.9B in additional MTA funding | TheHill - The Hill

The oil and gas sector has been a top-five contributing industry to both Daines and Gardner over their careers,according to Center for Responsive Politics data.

In a Tuesday speech on the Senate floor, Sen. John Tester (D-Mont.) called the LWCF the most important conservation tool we have at the federal level and a key driver of Montanas ballooning outdoor recreation economy. He also emphasized that he and others groups like Montana Trout Unlimited and Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Richard Burr, R-N.C., Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., have been fighting for more than a decade to secure full, permanent funding.

These victories did not happen magically overnight, he said. The fact is we worked long and hard with local conservation groups and public land enthusiasts around the country to build support where it never existed before. And our years of work finally broke the dam earlier this year when President Trump and Sen. McConnell reversed their opposition to this legislation because of overwhelming bipartisan momentum that we built on the ground. I welcome their change of heart.

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., another longtime champion of the LWCF, told HuffPost this week that many people were surprised by Trumps sudden reversal. But I say lets seize this opportunity this is a historic chance to realize the vision of the LWCF, and we should take it, he said in an email.

Udall added that the LWCF was a bipartisan creation his father, former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, played a large role in establishing the program and hes excited to see bipartisan support for it so many years later.

There will be a time and a place for politics and campaigning soon enough, he said. We will keep having the conversation about the administrations unending attacks on conservation, our public lands and the environment more broadly. But right now, lets just get this done for the American people.

Record vs. rhetoric

Efforts to boost fossil fuel extraction, mining and other development have dominated the Trump administrations public lands policy, often to the detriment of conservation.

The administration has led the largest rollback of national monuments in U.S. history, carving out more than 2 million acres from a pair of protected national monuments in Utah, and last week opening a 5,000-square-mile marine sanctuary off the East Coast to commercial fishing. It has weakened key conservation laws that protect land, water and air, including the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. And it has repeatedly hosted anti-federal-land advocates and even tapped fierce critics of federal land management for powerful government posts.

Supporting Trump and his anti-conservation agenda at seemingly every turn have been Gardner and Daines. Daines even signaled hed back William Perry Pendley, the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management who has extreme anti-environmental views and spent his career lobbying for the sale of federal lands, if Trump were to officially nominate him for the post. Gardner has so far avoided taking a stand on Pendley, but touted his relationship with Trump and his own role in the administrations controversial decision to move BLM headquarters to Colorado.

These things happen because President Trump and I work together for Colorado, Gardner said at a Trump rally in February in Colorado Springs.

Protecting public lands and maintaining them under federal control hasproven to be a winning platformin Western states.

Protecting public lands and maintaining them under federal control has proven to be a winning platform in Western states. Likewise, the LWCF is extremely popular 74% of Americans support fully funding the program, according to a 2018 poll by the National Wildlife Federation.

Daines and Gardner appear to have realized that they need a conservation victory to point to going into the 2020 election. It remains to be seen if this will give them the boost they need to secure another term.

Jessica Goad, deputy director of Conservation Colorado, said she is thrilled about the public lands bill and Gardner and Daines deserve credit. But she stressed that environmental leadership requires far more than supporting the LWCF, noting that Gardner has yet to back the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act, or CORE Act, which would protect approximately 400,000 acres of public land in the state. An analysis by her group last year found that Gardner has voted against the environment 85% of the time since he became a senator.

Senator Cory Gardner is a Republican who represents Colorado. Roll Call named Gardner the most vulnerable Republican senator in 2020.

Colorado voters are really smart, Goad said. They are well-informed on the environment, and I think passing LWCF is just the start for voters.

In an interview with E&E News this week, a spokeswoman for Gardners campaign accused Democrats of being more interested in playing politics than protecting public lands and of attempting to distract from the fact that Gardner accomplished something they failed to do for decades.

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Vulnerable Republicans flip their stance on conservation bill - High Country News

Donald Trump, when it was in his interest, claimed he had the coronavirus in control, declaring he was waging a war on COVID-19. With glee, he proclaimed himself a "war time president." In this capacity, Trump has insisted no more than 50,000 would die, a vaccine would be available soon and encouraged consumption of household cleaning products as well the malaria drug, Hydroxychloroquine, as promising treatment. All these recommendations were empty.

Now that more than 110,000 Americans have succumbed to the virus, Trump has abandoned interest, halted daily updates and inherently silenced his pandemic experts. It's incontestable, with 21 states experiencing an uptick in new cases, evidence the pandemic is expanding. Arizona, Texas and the Carolinas have emerged as hot spots. Circumstances are increasing demand on hospitals. it begs the question, are states which reopened early experiencing renewed growth in COVID-19 as the result of abandoning social distancing and face masks?

That said, Trump's new and foremost concern is on relocating the Republican Convention to a state which ignores social distancing. Apparently, concern for American health takes a back seat to Trump's vision of a large, televised Republican Convention. Who would have guessed?

Wade Eagleton, Bakersfield

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Letter to the Editor: Republican convention | Opinion | bakersfield.com - The Bakersfield Californian