This legislation does not. This claimed the lives of nearly 5,000 americans between 1881 and 1968. But this would achieve in the meaning by defining it is so broadly to include a minor bruise or abrasion. Our nations histor nations hisl terrorism demands more seriousness from us than that. W. E. B. Du boise wrote about the lynching in georgia. He wrote that after, they were on display at a store in mitchell street in atlanta. His liver and heart were presented as a souvenir. Sickening, grotesque the images. 1931, raymond gunn was lynched in missouri. The spectacle drew a crowd of almost 4,000 people including, if you caincludingcome if you ce it, women and their children. And the tragedy of lynching, the author writes one woman even held her little girl up so high so she could get a good fix on who was, quote, blazing on the roof. Sickening and grotesque abuse images. In the summer of 1955, 14yearold nfl was visiting family when he went to a Country Store and bought some candy. While there he was accused of working with a white woman and for the offense, kidnapped in the middle of the night and bludgeoned so badly that afterwards, his body was unrecognizable. He could only be identified by the ring hee was wearing. After seeing the remains, so the world could see what they have done. We must remember the thousands of others whose lives were destroyed. But this bill will not do that. It would expand the meaning to include any Bodily Injury including a cut, abrasion or bruise, physical pain, illness or any other injury to the body no matter how temporary. Mr. President , words have meaning. It would be a disgrace to declare that a bruise is lynching, that and the abrasion is lynching, any injury to the body no matter how temporary is on par with the atrocities done who were killed for no reason other than they were black. Er to do that would demean their memory and achieving the legacy in the country. To be clear, the bill doesnt make it [inaudible] murdering on race or conspiring to do so is now illegal under federal law. It is already a federal crime and its already a hate crime. We have had federal hate crimes statutes for over 50 years and its been a federal crime to murder someone because of their race for over a decade. Its already a crime in 50 states. In fact rather than consider a good intentions symbolic bill, the senate could immediately consider addressing qualified immunity and ending police militarizationt. We can and must do better. That is why no one in the senate has been more involved in the criminal Justice Reform an thani have. No one has introduced more criminal justice m reform bills. In my time in the senate wife offered to cosponsor at least 22 unique criminal Justice Reform bills. I am acutely aware of the injustices perpetrated here year in and year out in our cities. But reform needs to be more than window dressing. Thats why im on the floor today to offer expedited passage, test today, the antilynching bill as an. Its a particularly vicious kind of murder and the federal law should treat it as such. For these reasons, the act should be adopted and applied to criminal penalties for lynching only and not for other crimes. Thank you, p mr. President. I ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of hr 35 which is received by the house i ask unanimous consent might amendment at the desk he agreed to come of the bill as amended to be read a third time and passed into the motion to reconsider be considered in the late on the table. Is there objection . Reserving the right to object. The senator from california. The idea that we wouldnt be anking the issue of lynching seriously is an insult. To senator boxer and senator tim scott and myself and all of the senators past and present who have understood this as part of the greatest pain of americas history, to suggest anything short of pulverizing someone so much that the casket would otherwise be closed except for the header when heroism and courage of the mattels mother, and that it would only be a lynching of someones d heart ws pulled out and produced it displayed for someone else is ridiculous. And on this day, the day of george floyd funeral, on this day that should be a day of nationall mourning. Mr. President , in 2018, the Senate Unanimously passed bipartisan antilynching legislation which i probably introduced with the only other black members of the body, senator cory booker and tim scott. It was a historic moment in for the firsand forthe first time if our country the federal antilynching legislation had been passed by the United States senate. It passed again by unanimous consent in 2019. Senator paul is now trying to weaken a bill that was already past. There is no reason for this. There is no reason for this. Senator pauls amendment would place a greater burden on the victims of lynching that is currently required under the federal hate crime law. There is no reason for this. There is no reason other than cruel and deliberate on this day of mourning. At this very hour there is a Memorial Service to honor the life of george floyd, who was murdered on a sidewalk by a Police Officer with his knee on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds george floyd pleaded for his life, called for his late mother and said he couldnt breathe. The pain experienced not only by that of man, that human being and his family and his children, but the pain of the people of america witnessing what we have witnessed since the founding of this country which is that black lives have not been taken seriously as being fully human and deserving of dignity, and it shouldnt require a torture in order for us to recognize a lynching when we see it and recognize it by federal law and call it what it is which is a crime that should be punishable with accountability and consequence. So, it is remarkable and it is painful to be standing here right now especially when people of all races are marching in the streets of america outragedca by the hate and violence and murder that has been fueled by racism during the span of this countrys life. America is rall right now. From the fact that in the history of the country black people have been treated as less than human. I stood here when we first proposed this law and we talked about the pain and the history of the pain of this issue in america and the fact is because the country is rall and america never addressed fully a systemic racism that has existed in our country and our bill in its current form is an opportunity for this body to acknowledge the seriousness of this, to acknowledge that if someone places a noose around someone elses neck why would you require that in addition their heart would be pulled out with her body pulverized beyond recognition . A bill is an opportunity to right a wrong and an opportunity for reckoning in the federal law. We cannot pretend that it is a thing of the past. Ahmed aubry was a victim of modernday lynching murdered 2020 march 23. Today we heard that one of the men that killed him used a racial slur after shooting him. He should be alive today and this killer should be proud to justice. No longer should the crime of lynching go unpunished or should victims of their families go without justice. And in closing, ida b. Wells once said our countrys National Crime is lynching. It isnt a creature of an hour, the sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury or the unspeakable brutality of an insane mob. It represents the calculating deliberation of intelligent people who openly about how that there is an unwritten law that justified them in putting human beings to death without complaint under oath, without trial by jury, without opportunity to make a dissent and without the right of appeal. Our country has waited too long for a reckoning on the issue of lynching, and i believe no senator should stop before weight of the law in its capacity to protect these human beings and human lives. We are working on a comprehensive bill to address this and the tragedy at the heart of this national day of mourning d and i asked to weaken the legislation. I yield the floor. T reserving the right to object. The senator from new jersey. Thank you very much, sir. I want to thank senator harris for her words to him as a lead senator on this though. I want to f thank her for her partnership and leadership. I also want to thank senator tim scott from South Carolina who has shown extraordinary commitment to this as well. And on the house side i want to thank bobby rush, former black panther. I want to thank him for his leadership and the commitment to Racial Justice in america. I also want to recognize a director Gordon Taylor and the founder of the organization. She was here the last time the bill was before this body. February of 2019, this body to do something historic and i dont mean to be emotional, i am rall this week but we stood here and we went and talked about the hundreds of years over a theury, excuse me, of effort to pass legislation brought up and defeated time and time again in this body and how proud i was put in that in a tr partisanship is high in this country we t have done it togetr in one voice, 100 senators to pass this exact same build because there are good people in this body on both sides and we were correcting a wrong of history. Dy and nobody here needs a lecture on lynching and how horrible it is. Everybody supporters uproars racism. There are friends of mine here. Unanimously we passed that legislation and made history on. The floor. This is why i am confused because this bill has been passed unanimously, and here we are on the day of a Memorial Service for another person whose murder was condemned by people on both sides of the aisle. I have sat where you have sat and watched the differences between the republican leader and the democratic leader. I dont go back that long in this body that ive watched harry reid, Mitch Mcconnell and Chuck Schumer disagreed so deeply time and time again, but we came together and passed the bill unanimously. Mitch mcconnell let that bill come to the floor, didnt try to block it. And my colleague over there, rand paul was one of the first hand i shook on the senate floor. Everything he said about his commitment to criminal Justice Reform is right. One of the first bills i wrote here i wrote with rand paul and then he went further in another time like this when america was rall and another unarmed black man was shot, he went as far as Time Magazine to stand up and talk openly about the public data about a black man in america being about 100 times more likely to be shot by the police then someone white. He said, shaking my hand if i may recognize, he said there must be something more going on here. I do not question the sincerity of his conviction. I have had too many conversations with him to questionan his heart. But of all the days that we are doing this, of all the days that we are doing this right now having this discussion when this bill passed today, but that would mean for america that this body and the body has finally agreed because i know when congress has a dot office all of the backlash after reconstruction so that he gave his famous speech where he talked about here we are in the Senate Making history for the first time and we all came together. There is something about us that we knew it was more than the legalistic issues my colleague now wants to bring up. We are a nation that needed this historical healing. And if we pass to this it would make a difference on the books of the federal system but you could speak volumes. The i do not need them to tell meyn about one lynching in this country. I stood in the museum in Montgomery Alabama and watched africanamerican families weeping at the stories of pregnant women lynched in this country. While this body did nothing. I can hear the them cry for justice, every one of us is sensitive to that anguish and pain as is the senator from kentucky. And this week the senator from kentucky mentioned the justin. I want to tell my colleagues on both sides of the aisle he was one to vote against the bill. That means this bill was supported by the leader of the democratic speaker of the house, by thert leader of the republi republicans. 400 plus votes supported this. But my colleague thinks that wrong. Ll is the if this bill is wrong, the democratic leadership of the houshouse is wrong. If this bill is wrong, 99 senators are wrong. If this bill is wrong, then the naacp is wrong. If this bill is wrong, the committee for civil rights is wrong. If the bill is wrong, the urban league of america is wrong. We have organizations, civil rights organizations, democrats and republicans. Tell me another time when the 500 plus congresspeople, democrats, republicans, house icmbers and senators come together in conviction and to sy now is the time that america, that we condemn the dark history of our past and actually pass antilynching legislation, and not one man, and i do not question his motives because i know his heart, one man is standing in the way of the law of the land changing because of a difference of interpretation. This doesnt talk about bruising someone. Its a difference of interpretation. Does the anguished cries of people in the streets ive had children break down with me this week wondering if this would be a country that values their lives as much as white peoples lives. Ive had to explain to grown men this week that theres still hope that we can make change in america, we can grow and heal in america. We can make this more perfect union. Today is the day we can do it. One member for one psyche did february 2019 yield for one day and give america this when. Led us pass this legislation today of all days. Lets give the headlines tomorrow something that will give hope to this country that we can get it right. It may not cure the ills. So many are protesting to see a sign of hope. Mr. President i object to this amendment. I object. I object. I object. On substance. I object on the law and for my heart and spirit every fiber of my bering one being i object for my ancestor. Your objection is heard. The senator from kentucky. It is important to let the record show i have been working with senator bookers office for three months on the amendment to this bill i willing to have unanimous but it is incredibly important we get this right. A woman in new jersey a black woman in newy jersey assaulted three jewish women and slapped them. It was terrible she uttered racial epithets to these jewish ladies and was charged with thirddegree misdemeanor assault up to one year in prison which to me sounds significant for slapping but then charged with a hate crime in addition that is four years in addition. We do have to get this right. Is slapping someone and hurling a racial epithet getting ten years in prison this is what we are fighting criabout in criminal Justice Reform. We set up a system we didnt Pay Attention to the penalties now things happen we have to be smart im willing to pass the bill today as amended which would simply say you dont even not only harm them but attempt to but to harm ngthem so all of the discussion about bruising while trying to lynch someone yes that is attemptede murder. Nothing in the bill would stop or prevent in the prosecution of penis behavior that is what it is intended for what im trying to do is make sure the unintended consequences. We fought the battle against mandatory minimums for a decade now because people are sentence that makes no sense ten years for slapping someone would be an abomination and it could happen to anyone. Do we want a black woman who slapped three women that were jewish to get ten years in prison . We have to use some common sense we should not have a ten Year Prison Sentence for anything less at least an attempt to do bodily harm. The statute list what bodily harm is but it still could be the attempt doesnt mean you have to have it but it would preclude somebody shoving somebody in a bar and they fall down and have the abrasion and say he did it because of racial animus now there is a ten year penalty thats not n right. All of us here are advocates on the same side of criminal Justice Reform and have argued on the same side the law has screwed up and incarcerated too many people unfairly. Thats what im trying to prevent t t. I understand the emotions do you think its a great joy to be here . Know. On the sponsor 22 criminal justice bills. My getting publicity . Know. Imus created by simpleminded people on the internet to think i do not like emmett till or appreciate the history or the memory. Like i have no right to have an opinion and a should beig quiet i have worked in an honest way was senator bookers office for three months we have gone back and forth we gave them some language they came back to us and said it would it work and we havent gotten any more responses in a month or more now its litigated in the press trying to accuse me to be in favor of something so heinous it makes my skin crawl it makes me sick to my stomach even read those accounts of what happened we ought to be fair and honest. Lynching is illegal. They are not telling the truth. The law says if you kill somebody with racial animus under the hate crime statutes it is illegal you cannot do that also this bill does not make lynching illegal so for all of the discussion of that it creates a new crime called conspiracy to lynch. I am for it. All four policemen should be responsible for what happened to mr. Floyd. But when we do that we have to be careful were somebody was pushed into someone or slapped somebody there has to be justice people chanting justice it has to have a brain and vision and cannot be hamstrung for ten years in prison for a minor crime everything we left in here to make sure it is inclusive they said what about attempted . We said change the language. We have the attempt to cause serious bodily harm. If there was the attempt it look like it would be serious. Slapping someone isnt but as the current the statute as is the mandatory minimums cap people in jail for decades. All of us have worked on the same side of that issue. Im asking for a minors change i am completely out of the way i am for the bill im asking unanimous consent to pass the bill today with one amendment that just says lets be careful not to arrest people for slapping someone and then get them ten years in prison this isnt about someone trying to kill another person or attempting bodily harm. Those people would be included in this language even if they did not have a mark on the person if they were rounding them up and tying them up that is attempted murder they would still be included in this bill. But what we have to preclude is the bill isnt used for the wrong purposes were on the same side of the to punish and prevent and the symbolism. But we cant part pass laws what we all have said it was wrong with the penal system in the unintended consequenceser there is one here and i ask in a very polite way for three months for one small change and i let the bill go today if we could have it they are not brandnew they been sitting in senator bookers office for three months as he has had objection to try to workon with him. I ask unanimous consent once again to pass the bill asd amended. Is there objection . Reserving the right to objectn object. The senator from new jersey. This is a bill that has already passed this body. Same bill, same language, there is no objection there. Only for members of the house objected. Same bill, same language. I have heard this objection. We disagree with this. The truth of the matter is what is being proposed is not just opposed by me but republican colleagues sponsoring this bill and this body and these corrections as well in addition to that changes to this bill now send it back to the house of the representatives. This is a tactic to send it back to the house where again it has to be voted on. This idea that somehow someone would be brought up on lynching charges for slapping is absurd especially if you can see how hateri crime legislation is difficult to prove. I am deeply disappointed by the objections we have heard those were not manifest last year in 2019 but somehow were stopping in 2020. I object with the prediction that we as a body will correct historic ills and pass lynching legislation through this body to the house one day in this nation this legislation will pass. And perhaps it will have to wait until im not here or senator paul is not here unless we go back to the 2019 senator paul and the question is what side of history will we be on . Pray that happens in this congress i pray the president signs legislation against lynching and how historic that would be. But today that will not happen obviously. And i am telling you right now this celebration will come this moment in American History will come. And the frustrating thing for me is at the time this country hungers for a race reconciliation in common sense and acknowledgment of ouras past and looking forward to a better future, this will be one of the sad days. And that possibility was halted. As we all know one of the great leaders we all have ask that question of how long it would take and the simple answer is not long. Because the earth will rise again and not long because you will reap what you sow. Not long because the arc of the moral universe is long that bends toward justice. We will pass this legislation provide. The members of this body as we are right now are the ones to do it. I object. Your objection is heard. The senator for alaska. Thank you mr. President. Before my colleagues exited the chamber i want to acknowledge your words and thank you for the passion and emotion in your words and those are what i think all of us as members of the senate should hear and expect i am thankful i was here on the floor to personally here because we can read words that it is when we have the ability to hear and feel those words that the meaning truly comes out so i thank you for that and appreciate that