WASHINGTON — The brother of George Floyd testified on Capitol Hill at a heated hearing on police misconduct, one day after Floyd was laid to rest in Houston. 

"I'm here today to ask you to make it stop. Stop the pain," Philonise Floyd told the silenced hearing room.“He didn’t deserve to die over twenty dollars. I am asking you, is that what a black man’s life is worth? Twenty dollars?”

The hearing comes as Democrats move to pass the Justice in Policing Act, legislation that would reform police departments nationwide.

Floyd’s death in late May at the hands of police has sparked massive protests not seen in generations. 

“There are too many officers who abuse their authority, and we cannot be blind to the racism and injustice that pervades far too many of our law enforcement agencies,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee. 

Lawmakers also heard testimony from civil rights and law enforcement leaders.

"His life mattered,” Floyd's brother said.

Philonise Floyd broke down at one point during the hearing. 

"They lynched my brother," he said.

The Democrats' legislation would create a national database of police misconduct, ban police choke holds and loosen "qualified immunity" to make it easier for those injured to seek damages in lawsuits, among other changes. The proposals don't go as far as some activists want to shift funds from police departments to community services. The bills, however, make available grant money for states to reimagine ways of policing.

“All we simply want is for every single community, regardless of race, to be able to breathe the free air of liberty and justice for all,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from Brooklyn. 

Republicans are criticizing activists who want to "defund the police," a catch-all term for shifting law enforcement resources, though the Democratic bill does not call for that.

President Donald Trump and allies have seized on the word to portray Democrats as extreme.

Taken off guard by the huge public support for police reform, GOP lawmakers are rushing to come up with their own proposals.

"The American people understand that it's time for a real discussion," said Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the ranking Republican on the judiciary panel. But he said what they also understand is that "it is pure insanity to defund the police."

Republicans, as well as Democrats, have called for a national registry of use-of-force incidents, so police officers cannot transfer between departments without public awareness of their records.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Wisconsin, said the "depravity" he said he saw in the video of Floyd's death "burned in my soul.” 

He welcomed a new database and also called for police chiefs to get rid of "bad apples."

There is also growing bipartisan support for increasing the use of police body cameras, ending no-knock warrants as police used to enter the home of Breonna Taylor who was killed in Louisville, Kentucky, and other changes to police practices and oversight. 

The committee also heard from Angela Underwood Jacobs, the sister of a black law enforcement officer, Dave Patrick Underwood, who was shot and killed while guarding a federal courthouse in California during the protests that followed Floyd's death.

Philonise Floyd challenged the lawmakers in the room to take swift action to honor his brother. 

“It is on you to make sure his death is not in vain,” he said.