Vote vote vote the presiding officer are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote . Seeing none, the yeas are 75, the nays are 15. The nomination is confirmed. Under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the president will be immediately notified of the senates action. The clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. The clerk cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of brian d. Miller of virginia to be special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery, signed by 17 senators. The presiding officer by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. The question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of brian d. Miller of virginia to be special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery shall be brought to a close. The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. The clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote vote vote the presiding officer the yeas are 51. The nays are 40. The motion is agreed to. The clerk will report the nomination. The clerk nomination, brian d. Miller to be special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery. Mr. Blunt madam president . The presiding officer the senator from missouri. Mr. Blunt madam president , today we are on the senate floor at a time when once again were attempting as a country to reconcile things that should have been reconciled long ago. The deaths of george floyd, brie an . A taylor, Ahmaud Arbery shocked the country, outraged the country. Three of them in a very short period of time, brought again this division we have in our country where we look at the country and particularly we look at Law Enforcement in two different ways. The discussion i had and have with my sons is different than the discussion that many of my African American friends, in fact as far as i know all of my African American friends that ever talked to me about this have with their sons. With my sons i would say if you get in trouble, look for a Police Officer. That is not the Police Officer discussion that African American fathers often have with their sons. That discussion goes more like, if youre picked up by the police, do exactly what youre told until i get there and well straighten it out once i get there. Thats the two views of what happens. And we see in all of these cases some reason to believe that those concerns are absolute and legitimate. Because of that, there is i think a wide support for the protests going on around the country, that our leadership stakeout today on the republican side, everybody was great, i think understanding and emotion, empathy talked about the protest of peace it will protest. The problem, madam president , is we have protests peacefully during the day that turn into violence and chaos at night. Peaceful protests shouldnt become a cover for violent activity. One of my good friends who plans protest marches told me today there has never been a peaceful protest march planned for the nighttime. The nighttime is not the time for peaceful protest marching. It might be the time for a candlelight vigil but not time for peaceful protests. So what we see at night, people who either werent part of that daytime protest activity or were there in the daytime so they could transition to violence and looting at night is absolutely outrageous, absolutely unacceptable. We saw we saw George Floyds brother yesterday go to the place where his brother died and say if i am not looting, if i am not rioting, if i am not destroying other peoples property, why would you be doing that . He said i lost my brother and im not trying to destroy my neighborhood because i lost my brother. Im not trying to destroy his neighborhood because my brother is gone. But we see activities happen that are just that are unacceptable on all fronts. Last night in st. Louis we had four Police Officers shot in the line of duty in what sometime earlier in the day had been anticipated that at the City Justice Center thrd be a planned there would be a planned violent activity. You dont manage to shoot three Police Officers unless youre thinking about it and normally thinking about it in advance. But thats what happened. Fortunately, those wound woundse all survivable. But talked to people in the Police Department in st. Louis today and they had six other events last night where police were shot at during the course of the night and we need to realize the Police Officers who are working, the National Guards men and women who are working are out there risking their lives trying to protect others. We need to realize that when they go to work every day, the mechanics of their family the members of their family have every reason to be concerned all day every day of what might happen. They dont know what door the person they love may be asked to knock on, what car they may stop, what moment may happen that makes the difficult life of being in Law Enforcement even more difficult. Weve certainly seen plenty of tragedies there in recent years, too. It hasnt been that long ago that Police Officers were being ambushed routinely and in a number and a number of Police Officers killed while on duty, not while they were trying to apprehend a felon. But when Somebody Just walks up behind them in the car or on the street and their life is ended. Then we see the horrifying image of George Floyds murder. And we have the same fear for people in that situation and the people that they love. In fact, nobody should live in fear in our society of just their personal safety, not the Law Enforcement officers, not their families, not people who are peacefully protesting, or people who have violated the law and are being arrested as they should be but not with the result that we saw, whether that arrest was appropriate or not, no arrest is it appropriate to decide youre going to be the punishing officer as well as the arresting officer. And those who are in power should be held accountable. Those who are in power should set an example. I talked this morning to the police chief in kansas city, rick smith who tomorrow will be joining a unity march with other leaders in the community and protesters in the community marching along with the protesters with chief smith and other officers and other elected leaders. And thats one way to begin to resolve this. Id also think, madam president , having had some experience with this particular topic that the Justice Department needs to reinstate full their full review of department pattern and practice. This is something that they walked away from in recent years but in our state, weve had three departments since 2014 that had a full pattern and practice review by the Justice Department. At least one of those entered into a Consent Decree with the department as to how they would focus in the future. I think one of those three st. Louis county asked for the review. St. Louis county, the city of ferguson, st. Louis city all believed they benefited from that review. Reviewing an officer or a number of officers is just often not enough. So im encouraging the department of justice to get back to having one of the options on the table, a full review by the Civil Rights Division or some other division in the Justice Department, depending on the circumstances of not only the procedures but also the pattern that a department may have fallen into. We cannot continue over and over again to have the same thing happen as we as a society try to grapple with the same exact problem. This is not a new problem. It is long past the time we should have figured out how to deal with it. If departments need help in figuring out how to deal with it, thats one of the things, whether it was st. Louis or baltimore, the Justice Department has shown some ability and some success in doing. I hope they will look at that again as they look at these three incidents that i mentioned today and others. It is time to move forward. It is well past time to move forward. Its time when people should have a society that they have confidence in the institutions of the society and those who serve in Law Enforcement and public assistance of all kinds should also have the appreciation and respect that we should have for them, and of course thats a contract where you earn that respect but you also get that respect when you have earned it as well over 99. 9 of those who have served every day do. And so with that, mr. President , i would yield the floor. You