Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus who represents a district spanning Brooklyn and Queens, was on All In with Chris Hayes earlier tonight talking about Ferguson.
During the discussion, Chris brought up the issue of police militarization that has been on display in the police response to protests. He highlighted in particular an amendment to the defense appropriations bill offered by Alan Grayson (FL-09) back in June to curtail the transfer of excess military equipment to police, Specifically, it would have "prohibit[ed] the use of funds to transfer aircraft (including unmanned aerial vehicles), armored vehicles, grenade launchers, silencers, toxicological agents, launch vehicles, guided missiles, ballistic missiles, rockets, torpedoes, bombs, mines, or nuclear weapons through the DOD Excess Personal Property Program established pursuant to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997."
Here is the exchange, starting at roughly 11:37.
CHRIS HAYES: One of the issues that has come out of Ferguson—and it’s ancillary to what happened to Mike Brown—is the militarization of police. There have been a lot of cries to demilitarize the police due to a program in which essentially surplus military equipment is passed through to police departments. That’s been true in the case of St. Louis County. There was a vote on an amendment in June that would have stopped that practice, and you did not vote for that amendment. You voted that amendment down. Do you regret that vote now?
HAKEEM JEFFRIES: Well, I believe that the amendment was actually designed to repeal the program, and I believe I supported that amendment. But, Chris, either way, certainly, I'm of the view that, regardless of what votes have previously cast, what we saw in Ferguson, Missouri, was a clear indication what the militarization of local police departments as---were behaving as if there were a military operation taking place on foreign soil.....
The problem is that Chris is right. Jeffries voted
no on that amendment.
The amendment failed 62 to 355. 19 Republicans and 43 Democrats voted for it. 210 Republicans and 145 Democrats voted against it.
Here are the 19 Republicans:
Justin Amash (MI-03)
Jim Bridenstine (OK-01)
Paul Broun (GA-10)
Jimmy Duncan (TN-02)
Chris Gibson (NY-19)
Morgan Griffith (VA-09)
Walter Jones (NC-03)
Jim Jordan (OH-04)
Jack Kingston (GA-01)
Raul Labrador (ID-01)
Tom Massie (KY-04)
Tom McClintock (CA-04)
Scott Perry (PA-04)
Tom Petri (WI-06)
Dana Rohrabacher (CA-48)
Mark Sanford (SC-01)
John Shimkus (IL-15)
Chris Stewart (UT-02)
Steve Stockman (TX-36)
Here are the 43 Democrats:
John Barrow (GA-12)
Earl Blumenauer (OR-03)
Bruce Braley (IA-01)
Tony Cárdenas (CA-29)
Matt Cartwright (PA-17)
Kathy Castor (FL)
Judy Chu (CA-27)
John Conyers (MI-13)
Donna Edwards (MD-04)
Keith Ellison (MN-05)
Alan Grayson (FL-09)
Raul Grijalva (AZ-03)
Rush Holt (NJ-12)
Mike Honda (CA-17)
Hank Johnson (GA)
Barbara Lee (CA-13)
John Lewis (GA-05)
Dan Maffei (NY-24)
Jim Matheson (UT-04)
Doris Matsui (CA-06)
Jim McDermott (WA-07)
Jim McGovern (CA-02)
Jerry McNerney (CA-09)
George Miller (CA-11)
Jerry Nadler (NY-10)
Gloria Negrete McLeod (CA-35)
Beto O'Rourke (TX-16)
Frank Pallone (NJ-06)
Ed Perlmutter(CO-07)
Mark Pocan (WI-02)
Loretta Sanchez (CA-46)
John Sarbanes (MD-02)
Jan Schakowsky (IL-09)
Bobby Scott (VA-03)
Jose Serrano (NY-15)
Louise Slaughter (NY-25)
Adam Smith (WA-09)
Jackie Speier (CA-14)
Mark Takano (CA-41)
John Tierney (MA-06)
Paul Tonko (NY-20)
Nydia Velázquez (NY-07)
Maxine Waters (CA-43)
Anyone not on this list who claims to have supported the amendment is either being forgetful or outright lying. I tend to suspect the latter.