Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said Tuesday he is moving the deadline for a bipartisan police reform bill until the end of July after previously stating the bill had to be completed in “June or Bust.”
Scott said in a published report Tuesday, however, that he felt the earlier deadline was met as the bipartisan group working on the Justice Act agreed on the “framework” of the bill by that time.
"We're now swapping language on that on that text," Scott said. "Of course, there are outlier issues that you have to figure out how to solve, but there are a number of pieces of the legislation that we already agree in concept and now we're writing it out."
When asked about moving the earlier deadline, Scott said the June 30 date "was on getting us to the place where we actually agree on the principles of the framework of the legislation. We met that deadline."
The Senator, who said he has been stopped in Washington, D.C., numerous times for “driving while black,” has been working on the bill for a while and said in June that it should not be a partisan issue.
Scott’s bill would strengthen training methods and tactics police use, and focus on ways to de-escalate situations, and give officers a duty to intervene when another officer is using too much force, according to a June 17 press release from Scott’s office.
“I really appreciate Senator Scott’s leadership putting together a police reform proposal that will make a difference," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. said in June. “This proposal reinforces the need for better community policing, best practices and creating more transparency when it comes to reporting encounters with law enforcement throughout the country. I hope our Democratic colleagues will take this proposal seriously, and that all of us work together to find common ground to bring reform to policing in America.”
It bans chokeholds like the one former Minneapolis, Minnesota, Police Officer Derek Chauvin used on resident Gorge Floyd last year, resulting in Floyd’s death and a murder conviction for Chauvin.
The bill would reform hiring practices to ensure departments more closely match the communities they serve, as well as help prevent officers with bad disciplinary records from moving to different departments.
According to the release, the bill would provide funding for more officers to wear body video cameras to increase transparency, and make sure officers in all departments nationwide report uses of force or discharging a weapon to the FBI.
It will make lynching a federal crime and create two commissions to study how black men and boys interact with the justice system.
Scott said he wants to see a floor vote on the bill before the Senate recesses in August and hopes Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., can make time in a “busy” calendar to move the bill forward.
According to Scott, Schumer said getting “floor time” for the bill by the end of the month was “nearly impossible.”
He said, however, he is still holding out “hope” the bill can move.
"Now the question is getting all that into language,” Scott said in the Axios story. “Anyone who's been around for any amount of time realizes that you don't do anything in this body (Senate) in two or three weeks, especially on something that can be transformative."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.