President Joe Biden will host at the White House the family of murdered Minneapolis man George Floyd on May 25th, the first anniversary of his death at the hands of a former police officer, the Associated Press reports.
Biden had hoped that a policing reform bill he named after Floyd would have passed through Congress to allow him to sign it on the anniversary, but intransigent Republicans in Congress, particularly those in the Senate, refuse to act on Biden’s proposals.
According to the AP, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would ban chokeholds by federal officers and end qualified immunity for law enforcement against civil lawsuits, as well as create national standards for policing in a bid to bolster accountability. It passed the House in March, but faces a much tougher road in the evenly-divided Senate, where Republicans have expressed opposition to efforts to repeal qualified immunity.
Floyd was killed by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on Floyd’s back and neck for more than nine minutes, preventing him from breathing. Chauvin was tried and convicted of second degree murder, third degree murder and second degree manslaughter. Three other officers involved in the incident face upcoming trials.