Vulnerable members in swing districts, known as front-liners, who remain most at risk of losing their seats during the midterm elections have spent the past several weeks pushing leaders to vote on legislation that would help fund local law enforcement to counter GOP attacks that Democrats are soft on crime — an argument that probably cost the party seats in 2020 and created animosity between different factions of the party.

But the push to increase police funding has infuriated liberals who would rather see such money redirected to community policing, as well as Black lawmakers and civil rights groups who want accountability and transparency measures attached to police funding…

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus also met Tuesday evening to discuss their support, expressing to leadership that any package including funds for police must have legislative language that holds law enforcement to account for cases of police brutality. There was concern that the package also skipped the committee process, giving some members the impression that it was rushed without much consideration over how it would be digested by Black lawmakers.

Liberals and some Black lawmakers and their voters have been highly critical of additional funding for law enforcement without new policies governing policing practices following the killings in recent years of Black Americans in high-profile cases involving allegations of and convictions for excessive force.