WASHINGTON (AP) Democrats proposed a sweeping overhaul of police oversight and procedures Monday, a potentially far-reaching legislative response to the mass protests denouncing the deaths of black Americans in the hands of law enforcement.

Before unveiling the package, House and Senate Democrats held a moment of silence at the Capitols Emancipation Hall, reading the names of George Floyd and others killed during police interactions. They knelt for 8 minutes and 46 seconds now a symbol of police brutality and violence the length of time prosecutors say Floyd was pinned under a white police officers knee before he died.

We cannot settle for anything less than transformative structural change, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , drawing on the nations history of slavery.

The Justice in Policing Act would limit legal protections for police, create a national database of excessive-force incidents and ban police choke holds, among other changes, according to an early draft. It is the most ambitious change to law enforcement sought by Congress in years.

Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, which is leading the effort, said called it bold and transformative.

The world is witnessing the birth of a new movement in this country, Bass said.

Despite the worldwide protests, with tens of thousands of demonstrators taking to the streets in cities across America and abroad since Floyd was killed May 25, the idea of broad-based U.S. police reforms remains politically polarized and highly uncertain in this election year.

While Democrats are expected to swiftly approve the legislation this month, it does not go as far as some activists want to defund the police. The outlook for passing the package in the Republican-held Senate is slim.

President Donald Trump , who will meet with law enforcement officials later Monday at the White House, was quick to characterize the Democrats as having gone CRAZY!

As activists call for restructuring police departments the president tweeted, LAW & ORDER, NOT DEFUND AND ABOLISH THE POLICE.

Republican campaign officials followed suit.

No industry is safe from the Democrats abolish culture, said Micahel McAdams, a spokesman for the House Republican campaign committee, in an email blast. First they wanted to abolish private health insurance, then it was capitalism and now its the police.

Democrats fought back.

This isnt about that, Pelosi said. Congress is not calling for any wholesale defunding of law enforcement, leaving those decisions to local cities and states, she noted.