Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer, of New York stated that the bill “does not rise to the moment” and would need “dramatic improvement.”
Pressure from NAACP and others to dismiss
Senate Democrats experienced significant outside pressure to dismiss the bill, including opposition from civil rights organizations, such as the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and from the Congressional Black Caucus.
Democrats urged bipartisan talks before greenlighting a debate on the Republican-written Justice Act, but the two sides would not comply. Sen. Scott said that he’d entertain up to 20 revisions to the bill, but the Democrats had more than that number of issues.
Sen. Kamala Harris of California told reporters that the decision to block the bill was an effort “to not take crumbs on the table when there is a hunger that America has for real solutions to a very real problem.”
Back to the table
Although frustrated by the vote, Sen. Scott remained determined, openly looking for ways to mitigate the bipartisan divide.
