Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick voted against two high-profile pieces of legislation that were approved by the Democratic-majority U.S. House of Representatives.
The Republican from Middletown Township voted against the For the People Act and George Floyd Justice in Policing Act on Wednesday.
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The For the People Act was first introduced in the last session Congress and reintroduced this year. The bill seeks to firm up ethics rules for government officials, “expand Americans’ access to the ballot box” by adding mandatory automatic voter registration, restore voting rights to people who have completed felony sentences, and a reverse state voter ID laws. One major proposal in the bill would deal with the requirements that political organizations name major financial backers and create a new public financing system for certain federal elections.
The bill next heads to the U.S. Senate.
In a statement sent to the media Thursday morning, President Joe Biden said he looks forward to working with Congress to “advance this important bill.” He said he would sign the bill if it is approved.
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“H.R. 1 should not be called For the People, it should be called For the Politicians,” Fitzpatrick said on the floor of Congress Wednesday.
“What this body is doing today … you’re further eroding trust in the system, and that’s a real shame because we have an opportunity to fix this,” Fitzpatrick said.
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The congressman pointed to his slate of proposals for reform, including term limits, no pay for Congress unless a budget is passed, a balanced budget requirement, the Restoring Faith in Elections Act, and voter ID.
During a phone interview with the conservative Dom Giordano Program, Fitzpatrick said he’s heard from moderate Democrats who are “furious” with their leadership for putting through several bills, including the For the People Act. He told the host he would not name the Democrats who have said that “out of respect.”
Fitzpatrick said he is not relitigating the 2020 election, but steps need to be taken to improve faith in the election process.
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“This is not backward looking to 2020, this is forward looking to future elections,” he stated on the radio talk show.
The congressman said his vote against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which came down to party lines, was because the proposal “failed to implement the needed fixes to protect the brave women and men of our law enforcement, who risk their lives every day to keep us safe.”
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The bill calls for creation of a national database of police misconduct, overhaul to the qualified immunity system by allowing people wronged by police to take them to civil court, ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants, and stop racial and religious profiling by law enforcement.
Supporters of the bill have said it is needed to reform policing.
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Fitzpatrick was one of only three Republicans to support the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020. He also supported the Republican-backed JUSTICE Act that had some similar proposals.
On why he changed his position with the new iteration of the legislation, Fitzpatrick said in a statement that the bipartisan amendments made to the act in 2020 were not carried over to the current bill.
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“Once again, despite all of our work, House leadership is ignoring our bipartisan fixes and choosing to put forth legislation that seeks to erode and do away with qualified immunity altogether. If this legislation is recklessly implemented, there is no question that it would, in turn, do significant damage to the law enforcement profession and ultimately make communities across our nation less safe. As a lifelong FBI agent and staunch, fervent supporter of law enforcement, I simply cannot allow this to take place,” he said.
Fitzpatrick railed against “purely partisan, impractical ideological proposals.”
“We must build a bridge and unite to put forth a unified solution,” he said.
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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has been targeting Fitzpatrick in recent ads ahead of the 2022 mid-term election. They disapproved of the three-term congressman’s votes.
“Congressman Fitzpatrick has been representing himself and his special interest backers instead of the voters who sent him to Washington,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Brooke Goren said late Wednesday night.
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The For the People Act and George Floyd Justice in Policing Act both failed in the Republican-led U.S. Senate last Congress, but Democrats now have the majority in both chambers.
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