The White House is walking back one of Joe Biden‘s campaign promises. In a conversation with Politico, a member of the Biden team said that the administration has decided not to move forward with plans to create a national police oversight commission.
Domestic Policy Czar Susan Rice informed Politico of the administration’s decision in a statement.
“Based on close, respectful consultation with partners in the civil rights community, the administration made the considered judgment that a police commission, at this time, would not be the most effective way to deliver on our top priority in this area, which is to sign the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act into law,” the statement read.
The White House “is working with Congress to swiftly enact meaningful police reform that brings profound, urgently needed change,” Rice’s statement continued.
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is the Democrats‘ underhanded way of defunding the police.
“The unfunded mandates in their bill, H.R. 1280, would cost police departments hundreds of millions of dollars—the equivalent of taking 3,000 cops or more off the streets. Our men and women in uniform deserve better,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said in a statement.
Ranking Member on the Budget Committee Jason Smith, and Ranking Member on the Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan also expressed their concerns about the bill in a letter sent to Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel.
“It is our understanding that H.R. 1280 contains provisions that significantly violate the current Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA) threshold of $85 million,” the letter stated. “It is further our understanding that these provisions may in fact result in additional costs to state, local, and tribal governments totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars which would deprive these localities of the resources needed to provide adequate policing and public safety services in their communities.”
The decision to walk back his promise is no surprise, as Joe Biden is known for flip-flopping on nearly every issue. But no matter what decision the Biden team makes, their actions are actually making the situation worse. Instead of looking at the policing situation objectively and realizing that situations involving police negligence can only be solved by more funding and more training, the White House and Congress would rather just make it harder for police to do their jobs.
