'I'm tired of pain': George Floyd's brother implores Congress for police reforms

WASHINGTON — George Floyd’s brother Philonise pleaded in an emotional and powerful statement to members of Congress on Wednesday that they pass police reforms and listen to the calls around the world to "stop the pain."

"I can't tell you the kind of pain you feel when you watch something like that -- when you watch your big brother, who you looked up to your whole entire life, die, die begging for his mom," he told members of the House Judiciary Committee, describing the video footage that showed his brother's death in police custody last month.

"I'm here to ask you to make it stop. Stop the pain, stop us from being tired," he said. "George called for help, and he was ignored. Please listen to the call I'm making to you now, to the calls of our family, and the calls ringing out the streets across the world."

The hearing on police brutality and racial profiling comes as lawmakers consider a policing overhaul bill proposed by Democrats and a day after a funeral service was held in Houston for George Floyd, who died last month after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during his arrest.

Philonise said in his opening statement that he was testifying to make sure his brother's death will not be in vain and "to make sure that he is more than another face on a t-shirt, more than another name on a list that won’t stop growing."

"If his death ends up changing the world for the better — and I think it will, I think it has — then he died as he lived. It is on you to make sure his death isn’t in vain," he said.

The Floyd family's lawyer, Ben Crump, is also among the dozen witnesses testifying at the hearing.

Other witnesses include experts and advocates including Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League and a former mayor of New Orleans. Republicans have invited several witnesses, including Daniel Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who is a conservative radio host who often appears on Fox News.

The hearing comes as the committee prepares to next week mark up the Justice and Policing Act, the policing overhaul legislation unveiled by Democrats amid protests that have swept the nation over the last two weeks since Floyd’s death.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters Tuesday that Democrats aim to hold a floor vote on the measure during the week of June 22. Hoyer urged Republicans to work with Democrats on crafting the final version by proposing amendments during the committee markup.

The legislation, which Democrats say would increase police accountability and transparency, would ban chokeholds, including the kind used by a then-Minneapolis police officer in Floyd's death on May 25, as well as no-knock warrants in drug cases, as was used in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, in March.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that he has put Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only black Republican in the Senate, in charge of leading a group to respond to the events surrounding Floyd's death. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with Scott on Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the proposal.