BLACK LIVES MATTER GOES BIG ON POLICY AGENDA. After three months of sustained public protest, Black Lives Matter organizers are stepping from streets and plazas into the policy arena. And they’re going big. The BREATHE Act, a four-part proposal named after the phrase uttered by Black men Eric Garner and George Floyd while in police choke holds, aims to codify the movement’s core objective: redirecting federal funds away from police, prisons and other parts of the criminal justice system and into underserved communities of color.