live today at 1:30 eastern time, an update from the covid-19 response team in the biden administration's handling of the pandemic. watch live on c-span. >> today i how subcommittee focuses on domestic violence affecting military families. live coverage begins at 3:00 p.m. eastern online at c-span.org, or listen on the free radio app. marty johnson is a reporter with the hill newspaper, he joined us for a conversation on state and police reform efforts. on the national level, on that compromise police reform bill we have been tracking. what is the latest on when that bill might be expected and what we know about the sticking point as of today? guest: right. obviously, today is the one-year anniversary of george floyd's death and that has been sort of the self-imposed deadline that

the white house and karen bass, the architect of the george floyd justice in policing act set for themselves to get this bill to president biden's desk, to get signed into law. obviously, we are in today and that is not going to happen, but congresswoman bass signals that conversations with senator tim scott were going well, but that we need a few more weeks to get it finalized and she said that she has to have the bill be substantive and drive the change that they are trying to seek rather than get a bill passed by a certain date. host: a few more weeks. how much pressure by reform advocates to simply try to move ahead with the george floyd justice in policing act rather than waiting for whatever comes out of this negotiation.

of course, the george floyd act passed in march in the house, mostly a partyline vote. guest: when it passed the house, it did not have any republican support and democrats knew that they would have to work across the aisle in the senate to get the bill passed and avoid a filibuster beard -- filibuster. advocates i have talked to are pleased with the progress, they know it takes time. i think it would be a different story if talks or stalling -- were stalling and disintegrating . last week, when she was talking about the new deadline, congresswoman bass said it will not take months, hopefully within the next couple of weeks. host: is there any concern that waiting for this bipartisan bill to come together lost maybe some of the momentum from the passage

of the house version or any momentum that might have come from all of the attention on the trial last month? guest: one thing that advocates -- for george floyd's murder, is that this is the end they started a year ago. this is an ongoing talk about what policing looks like in america, what police interacting with black people in this country looks like, what police killings of black people in this country look like, this is an ongoing conversation. the day of the conviction, a teenager was killed in columbus, ohio by police. you know, the week before the trial wrapped up in the -- brooklyn, minnesota, 10 miles away somewhere chauvin was standing trial, daunte wright

was shot and killed at a traffic stop and then andrew brown, jr. the day after the conviction was shot and killed by police in elizabeth city, north carolina. host: we are talking with marty johnson with the hill newspaper taking your phone calls, your questions on police reform, whether it is at the federal or state and local level, covering these issues for the hill newspaper, take us to the state level, one year anniversary, what has changed in minneapolis specifically when it comes to policing in that city? guest: right. in december, the mayor of minnesota along with the future council unanimously decided that they will rollback the police budget, they will take out $8 million from the police budget and shift it toward violence prevention, other social services in an effort to drive

down, i guess, the encounters with police that turned violent, that turned deadly and also in minneapolis, a couple of weeks ago, the near term general merrick garland announced that there will be a practice review in minneapolis. that is a tool that the department of justice has to look at a police department's practices, what is going on, what is going wrong, what should we fix and after that, we -- it usually goes into a consent decree, which is a really effective tool that the federal government has to have some oversight over these police departments that demonstrate that there is a problem in how they operate. host: was states in this country have taken the most dramatic steps on policing reform in the past year? guest: i would not say at the state level, it is more local

level, so that new york police department -- mollified community, other states that have taken that step toward it. most changes at the steady level. -- at the city level. repeated levels of police violence, of police killings, that is where the most reform is seen. host: on the issue of qualified immunity, there has been some compromise efforts on qualified immunity to set a limit for what police officers can do in their individual capacity, maybe have the departments take up the rest. is that part of the negotiation in the federal bill. we know qualified immunity is one of the major sticking points right now. is there some middle ground there? guest: it is a great point you brought up, the idea of having

the police department or the municipality in which the police department operates take some of the liability in these policeman conduct cases. that has a bid proposal -- that has been a proposal brought up. host: plenty of topics to discuss. marty johnson to take your phone calls, dwayne in jamaica, new york. good morning. caller: good morning. if it sounds good, the congressional police reform effort, you're going to have conservative states, arizona, florida, conservative ag spiting something of the sort. -- fighting something of this sort. how is it that you will come back and try to have reform when you will have these resistance

-- this resistance in those conservative states? guest: yeah, sure. the bill works in a couple of different ways when it comes to reform. past qualified immunity, there's a lot of things. the choke holds, at the federal level, so federal agents cannot use that in their policing. it creates a database for police misconduct. if an officer is fired for misconduct, they cannot then go to another police department down the road, down the street, another city and get a job. it also creates a database when force is used, but we do not have a let that a lot of great information on it.

it is not as robust as we would like it. as far as the implementing at the state and local level, it ties into federal aid. federal aid is 20% of the national police budget so across the country, how the police department is getting their money, 20% comes from the federal government. you need to see -- host: what is a no-knock warrant and how often are they used? guest: the no-knock warrants, they are warrants that police can get from the judge, the judge finds -- signs off and it gives those officers probable cause that there is some activity going on, -- drug raids, they do not want to -- to

alert the people that they are coming. they answer without stating who they are, their presence, which usually happens. host: gilbert in silver springs, maryland. republican appeared caller: i just have two points. there was a study on major police departments in the united states and they found that just on policing policies alone, on police and tracked, what they can get away with, they did not even meet basic minimal human rights standards by the u.n., which the united states signed in the 70's. that needs to be solved because we see what happens when we violate human rights in china, yemen, afghanistan, let alone here. that needs to be solved weird second is, what about having -- sold. second is, having sheriffs are

elected by the people. and have to answer to the people every four to two years. guest: yeah, no. as far as stopping civil rights violations, it is one of the things that is in this bill. it is called the color of law statute. it says a police officer or any law enforcement personnel cannot intentionally deprive someone of their civil rights. we see in these police misconduct cases and in the chauvin case is that chauvin along with three other officers in that case a few weeks ago were indicted on that federal charge of violating mr. floyd's civil rights. it is a really -- in the

statute, it says, and intent has to be proven, which is a hard thing to prove at any court in this country. the democrats need to lower the standard from intentional or reckless or willfully to open up the ability for these police officers to do misconduct to be held accountable. host: north carolina, independence, good morning. -- independents, in morning. caller: my question is, what is that there is a major focus -- great division in these high-profile cases. but then you have a lot of cases that bring people together --

and you have many of the officers reviewing the video themselves. in louisiana, you have years and consistencies in the story, police reports nonmatching -- you touched on that no knock in, but i think a lot of people -- there are a lot of things wrong on many levels with that. i do not understand the lie that we cannot come to a consensus. the situation needs to be quantified, studies need to be made about the impact this is having on people. host: i appreciate the question, i want to let marty johnson respond in a sound like you're multitasking this morning? caller: you guys do a good job of keeping me sane. host: good luck.

guest: i think what he brought up is a good point. at the bottom line, -- around the policing and with this george floyd policing act, the cost is, how do you hold police more accountable for their actions? it is really hard for the police misconduct case, not only the chauvin trial but to get a jury conviction is extremely rare. in the cases we have of police officers being arrested, in excessive force, and for using deadly force on the job, so when we talk about the no-knock warrants -- host: in louisiana, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to say that i did

not think it is so much holding the police accountable as it is holding america and the media and the politicians accountable. until we decide that everything is going to be reported equally, that you are going to talk about just as many whites are killed by officers, but yet you are going to show going to the streets when a black person is killed when you can see that there have been actions that he took that indeed accelerated any attempts of police made on him in heaven at his rest. -- in his arrest. i am saying we cannot glorify people for doing wrong and make them a hero when we have to look at a full picture. host: here is a full picture of the country. the white population in this

co back -- the black population about 13%, this from usa today in terms of all killings by police officers, although the black population in this country is 13%, they represent 27% of all police killings in this country, whites represent 48%. when it comes to unarmed killings by police officers, the black population in this country is even more represented in that group, 35% of all unarmed killings by police officers, whites are just 31% of that group. those numbers from mapping police violence.com on today's usa today anniversary section when it comes to george floyd. did you want to add any thoughts? guest: i will add one thing appeared if you talk to civil rights activists -- i will add one thing. if you talk to the civil rights

activists, this idea of why are we not talking about the other deadly force that happens with police, they did. we know the history of police, we know the legacy of pain and the pattern of seeing black people get killed by police and not ever be held accountable, so that is where that conversation is going. police reform advocates also -- they want all of it to stop. host: about 10 minutes left with marty johnson this morning, coming up on 8:30 eastern. add 1:30 today, president biden it will meet with the florida family, do you have any more information about whether he will make public remarks are what we are expecting after that meeting? guest: so, yesterday press secretary jen psaki said that president biden will be meeting with a family of george floyd at the white house.

she said the remarks will be private, that he has a real relationship with the family. if you remember, during the campaign last year, biden reached out to his family almost immediately after and they have kept that relationship going, so i would say that there might be some sort of general -- i will not be surprised if we do not have any insights to that conversation today. host: mike in independents. good morning. caller: i agree with the last caller. i believe that criminals want to fight with the police and get glorified and made into martyrs. a lot of these black people we were talking about that were shot, all they had to do was get in the police car and then they would be alive today. just get in the police car, take the ride and stay alive. that is what i have to say. host: mr. johnson on that

common? guest: -- comment? guest: i think police reform activists and civil rights activists in the past 10 years as body camera footage and bystander video with cell and stuff like that, they have grown more common and we have a better insight into how these encounters with police go, we see you -- we see when people do comply and when people have put their hands up or have reached for their insurance and a license and registration and they have been shot and they have been complying and were still -- i think the conversation around that is deeper than just this person did something wrong and they need to comply. host: bring it back to the negotiations on perhaps

bipartisan proposals and when it does come out, what do we know about the role of police unions and civil rights groups, how much influence they have had on not only the members, but the debate as well? guest: you know, the lawyers committee, civil rights and legal, the naacp, urban league, they have been very active in pushing this reform, -- the bipartisan network has helped with talk opportunities on the two sides. they have definitely put a hand in it. as far as police reform and police unions, some of the things -- they have some standard of force, while other things like qualified immunity, they are staunchly against that. host: you talk about the lawyers

committee for civil rights. explain who kristen clark is and what role she may soon have in the administration. guest: she has worn a lot of hats. most recently, she was the head of the lawyers committee, which does a lot of activism work and a lot of programs and nonprofit work surrounding taking up lawsuits against states that they believe passed laws that violate people's civil rights and other social justice issues. she is the head of that and now she is biden's now many to be the head of the civil rights division of the doj, which under the trump administration had a scaled-down role when it came to talking to police departments and overseeing what they are doing on the ground.

the senate has pushed her vote to the flow -- floor and that is supposed to happen sometime this week. host: expected to happen today at 2:30 is what we are hearing. that vote now expected it to: 30. a simple majority needed for her confirmation. you can watch that life on c-span2. sun city, florida, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. host: thank you, do me a favor and turn down your television because it makes it easier to hear you. caller: it is on mute. the problem in this country today is a white people, black people do not obey the law. the laws are made, we do not need to reform the laws, we have to get people to abide by the law.

all you keep talking about is the police, the police, the police have the interaction with the people that are breaking the law. ok. i say that police should use different tactics when they are approaching someone, they have two or three cops there, they should be able to apprehend the perpetrator without having to use deadly force. but again, you have to remind the people that if you run, that is what you are going to have to settle for. host: for some of these issues that have been brought up in the george floyd just as in policing act, would you agree with the banning chokeholds, that is one of the things in the act is that something you think would be -- caller: you do not need chokeholds, but you need to remember the condition of the man, he was not -- host: what about the issue of requiring the use of body

cameras, federal efforts to promote that in police departments. would you support that? caller: body cameras, i agree with. host: another one, limiting the transfer of military grade equipment to police departments? caller: my point is the police have to use different tactics, but the people who are criminals and black or right, -- white, green or yellow, they had to pay the price. host: john in florida. caller: i think you look around -- when we talk about police reform, criminal justice reform and what that looks like and what our justice system look like -- looks like, and what justice looks like and how that that's what happens when you are arrested and stuff like that. i think the people who are

advocating for police reform also really want to see criminal justice reform in a country moving forward. host: sarah in alabama, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. i want to start with mr. johnson to make statements. this is what i do not understand. you talk about police appeared have you ever been out there and been a cop and seeing the streets like -- i know about all of that, he had that in his system. guest: i have talked to multiple law professors, they have this deep understanding of the justice system. i talked to former police chiefs and former police officers about

what reform they want to see. it is not just one side of the coin. i think people who work and law enforcement say, this needs to be different. the chauvin trial was first -- was the first time we saw not only police officers come out and testify against chauvin and other police officers, which is against the grain, but the police chief of minneapolis was on the stand and condemned what chauvin did to mr. floyd. host: what are you going to be watching for today? how will you cover this anniversary of the death of george floyd? guest: right. i think there is definitely -- as far as negotiations go, i do not think there will be any crazy breakthrough today. i might be wrong. i think there have been a lot of statements from a lot