Bacon, Co-Sponsor of the Justice Act, Votes No on H.R. 1280

Washington, D.C. – An original co-sponsor of H.R. 677, the Justice Act, Rep. Don Bacon (NE-02) today voted against H.R. 1280, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021 because it does not offer workable solutions that would increase transparency, accountability, and performance of our nation’s law enforcement:

“The Justice Act would provide funds for better training for police officers, increase the number of body cameras, and provide important grants, but H.R. 1280 essentially defunds the police by stripping away qualified immunity causing grave harm to the recruitment and retention of police officers. People mistakenly believe qualified immunity gives a pass to police officers, but it doesn’t apply when an officer violates clearly established statutory or constitution rights of which a reasonable person would have known. It also creates a registry of police misconduct that would include complaints that were found not to be true and lawsuits that were thrown out of court.

“I will continue to fight for the passage of H.R. 677 while also fighting against legislation that would place our law enforcement in harm’s way.”

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