WASHINGTON — George Floyd’s brother and their family’s lawyer, Ben Crump, are among the witnesses slated to testify Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee as it considers a new police reform bill proposed by Democrats.
Philonise Floyd, George’s brother, will speak to the committee during a public hearing that begins at 10 a.m. ET on police brutality and racial profiling, a day after a funeral service was held in Houston for George Floyd. Crump, the civil rights attorney representing Floyd’s family, will also testify, according to a list that features a dozen witnesses.
Other witnesses include experts and advocates including Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League and a former mayor of New Orleans. Republicans have invited several witnesses, including Daniel Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who is a conservative radio host who often appears on Fox News.
The hearing comes as the committee prepares to next week mark up the Justice and Policing Act, the policing overhaul legislation unveiled by Democrats amid protests that have swept the nation over the last two weeks since Floyd’s death while in the custody of Minneapolis police.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters Tuesday that Democrats aim to hold a floor vote on the measure during the week of June 22. Hoyer urged Republicans to work with Democrats on crafting the final version by proposing amendments during the committee markup.
The legislation, which Democrats say would increase police accountability and transparency, would ban chokeholds, including the kind used by a then-Minneapolis police officer in Floyd‘s death on May 25, as well as no-knock warrants in drug cases, as was used in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, in March.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that he has put Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican in the Senate, in charge of leading a group to respond to the events surrounding Floyd’s death. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with Scott on Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the proposal.
