Opportunity to have this conversation as i approach you about the importance of this issue, ask that you give me an opportunity to share some thoughts, you were kind enough to give me the chance to move this forward and have a real conversation with america about theb importance of Police Reform, accountability, and transparency and thats exactly what the justice act focuses on. Its Police Reform, accountability and transparency. Youre also smart enough to put together a really strong group of senators who understand the issue of passion about the issue and also have expertise in different aspects of the senate and so this is a great team that you have put together. I appreciate having an opportunity to discuss the important issue of Police Reform. Let me start by simply saying that too often, were having a discussion in this nation about, are you supporting the Law Enforcement community or are you supporting communities of color. This is a false binary choice. If the answer to the question of which side do you support, its i support america and if you support america, you support restoring the confidence that communities of color have in institutions of authority. If you support america, that means you know that the overwhelming number of officers in this nation want to do their job, go home to their family. It is not a binary choice. This legislation encompasses that spirit. It speaks to the fact that we believe that the overwhelming number of officers in this nation are good people, working hard, trying to keep order in the communities. Communities of color and people like myself, ive told my story several times, stopped seven times in one year, that isnt a lot, but stopped this year, driving while black, i got a warning for failing to use turn signal earlier in my lane change. So this issue continues and thats why its so important for us to say that we hear you, were listening to your concerns. The george floyd incident certainly accelerated this conversation and we find ourselves in a place with a package that i think speaks to the family that i spoke with yesterday, who lost loved ones, we hear you. I think this package speaks very clearly to the young person whos concerned when hes stopped by the Law Enforcement officers, we see you. And so, what does this package do . Three major areas, one is on the area we have to have the right information so that we can direct our resources at the federal government to making sure that the outcomes lead to safer officers and safer suspects in the instances of challenges. That Data Collection or the information is around making sure that when serious Bodily Injury occurs or death that all of that information is reported to the fbi. Today only 40 of the departments report that information to the fbi. We want all that iorr about the Breonna Taylor case in louisville, kentucky, we dont have any information around noknock warrants, so for us to start a covering banning noknocks. It doesnt sound like a solid position based on my data because we dont have that data. Once we have the information and we can then turn to the training that is necessary to deescalate situations. The duty to intervene, not standing there watching an officer with his knee on the neck, but intervening in these situations. We can train our officers better. We can find ways in mechanisms to deescalate the situation so we spend a lot of time in the training aspect using the resources of our grants to reduce the situations and violence in those situations and then finally, we look at officer misconduct and the necessity of transparency. We believe that preservation of records on the local level, so that the departments within the state have a chance to see almost like a reference check, what the past history of that officer. We do not create a National Data base. The president s executive order creates basically a National Data base for that information to flow into. We believe that our policy positions are one that brings the communities of color into a position of stronger understanding and confidence in the institutions of authority and we believe that it brings our Law Enforcement community to a place where they have the resources necessary to deescalate some of the situations and frankly, through James Lankfords work on this package, we bring in the opportunity to hire more officers and have more training and have a better perspective on the history. So with that, theres a lot that could be said, instead of saying it more, im going to give it over to senator mcconnell. Well, thank you, tim. Even before george floyd and Breonna Taylor, senator scott has made it possible for those of us in the Senate Republican conference who are not africanamerican to understand that this problem still exists. We learned about his being stopped on numerous occasions well before the events of this year. But the witnessing of the murder of george floyd and the experience in my hometown of bee ona taylor certainly brings to the forefront the experience for all americans, including Senate Republicans. My role as the leader, as you know, is to decide what were going to do. The floor time is the coin of the realm in the senate, it takes a while to do almost anything. So what im announcing today is that after we do two circuit judges queued up this week or early next week, were going to turn to the scott bill. Im going to file cloture on the motion to proceed and our democratic friends if they want to make a law and not just try to make a point, i hope theyll join us on getting on the bill and trying to move forward in the way the senate does move forward when its trying to actually get an outcome, rather than just sparring back and forth which youve seen on both sides. I want to thank the whole team behind us. Everybodys contributed significantly to this product. So without tims leadership, it would not have been possible and without his leadership, i wouldnt be putting this on the floor, but i want you to know that were serious about making a law here. This is not about trying to create partisan differences, this is about coming together and getting an outcome. We showed we could do that on the cares act. Weve shown it on the Great American outdoors act and we need to show it on the scott bill. Bill. This is about making a law, not just making a point. This is not messaging, this is trying to be able to work in the most bipartisan way we can work, get it on the floor and lets have amendments and lets talk to the process. Equal justice under the law shouldnt be a partisan issue. A friend of mine and i were talking a couple of weeks ago, his comment was its not that our founding principles are off, theyre right. Were working on trying to be a more Perfect Union and we have a ways to go on that, and where we find areas where we dont have a more Perfect Union, we should engage in this. Let me give you a couple of examples. Senator scott has gone through sections in the bill and a section that first raised to me, whats the possibility of putting grants out there to be able to help more departments to hire black recruiters and help individuals that are coming through training in the Police Academy to have that ability. Where communities and the Law Enforcement dont match as far as ethnicity, could the federal government engage helping incentivize that . Thats one of the aspects of the bill, hour are we encouraging more people of color to engage in the community where thats been a challenge at times to lets break through that and solve that. We have assets even in washington d. C. The museum of africanamerican history, to tell the story the race between race and Law Enforcement. Its utilized by some, but not by most. How can we use that great resource to tell the story nationwide as well. So this is about transparency. This is about trying to provide information to Law Enforcement and to individuals. This is about accountability. But its also about trying to build that more Perfect Union that we can have. If were going to have equal justice under the law, lets work towards having equal justice under the law for all people and senator scott mentioned before. Not to be pro Law Enforcement or to be pro communities of color, but to be pro american in the process. One, i want to thank tim for taking on this task for all of us. Hes the right person at the right time and god has a plan for you and youre fulfilling that plan and youre trying to bring us together as a country. Ive spent time with john and ben and others on the Judiciary Committee listening yesterday and it was a fascinating hearing. Theres a process in the air force called listen, learn and lead. To my colleagues on the other side who said we talk too much, we dont need to listen anymore. Where were you for the eight years of the Obama Administration . Im getting a little tired of beeg lectured to by my democratic colleagues that all of this is trumps fault. You had eight years under president obama, the justice and policing act, none of it was taken up virtually. So lets not youre making no points with me trying to suggest that were bad and you all are not when it comes to this issue. You had eight years. No attempts to ban choke holds. No attempts to do any of the things that we all agree we need to do now. So, if you want to fight about that, lets fight. If you wont admit that the country needs if you want to admit that the countries need to move on together, lets do it. As to president trumps executive order, i appreciate him starting the conversation. He brought families into the white house and appreciated being listened to by their president. To my democratic colleagues, i appreciate putting together your list. Id like to work with you, but were not going to get there if we keep playing this game that were exclusively to blame here. Now, their shopping list, for lack of a better term, of what to do compared to tims, theres a lot of overlap, but there are some real differences. And how do you hammer out those real differences . You talk to each other. After the hearing i had multiple democratic colleagues come up to me and say lets try to reconcile our differences. To the American People, after the hearing i am more hopeful than i was before the hearing that theres going to be a genuine effort to bring reform to a problem thats been going on well above president obama, and if we dont do something about it, its going to go on well past president trump. Thank you for your leadership, tim. For me, this conversation is about trust, justice, and reconciliation as the chairman of the Judiciary Committee said. Its evidence that there are communities in our country who have lost trust in Law Enforcement based on their experience and thats where weve had an opportunity to learn from tim and others who feel theyve been disproportionally focused on en for pretexturial region. I had an opportunity to talk to George Floyds family, and rodney, his brother said, senator, we are from tex we want some texas sized justice. And i said, well, mr. Floyd, to the best of my ability thats exactly what we will deliver. So thanks to tim scott, senator scotts leadership and the contribution of everybody here, were all going to have a chance to try to attempt this reconciliation, to restore trust in some of our most important institutions, like our police. Is included in this piece of legislation is a bill that may look familiar, which is one that to create a National Criminal justice commission. This is a bipartisan bill that we i had introduced with chairman graham and gary peters, democrat from michigan in 2015. It actually has cleared the Senate Previously which means all 100 senators have had a chance to pass the bill and died in the house and basically we ran out of time. In my view, we need to do something in the immediate time frame, then we need to look at what do we need to do in the longterm to reform our criminal Justice System and thats exactly what this commission, Bipartisan Commission would do. Report back to congress in 18 months, with specific recommendations, and i think not like the 9 11 commission, that would be extraordinarily helpful. Its really hard for Congress Given the daytoday things that we deal with to give the broad view and this would allow us to garner expectations of experts across the country and then take up their recommendations and pass them as Congress Sees fit. But, tim, thank you for your great leadership and thanks for let me be a part of the team. I want to thank all of you for being here today and i think our main message today is that the justice act is working towards the solution and its not a political exercise. I said the other day on an interview i had, and i was sitting there thinking about it, that if this is a Pivotal Moment in our countrys history, and if we as congress, as republicans and democrats joining together, fail to act because of the crying voices that we hear every day about this, then were going to be deemed a failure in the eyes of so many, not just our communities of color, but our young people are losing faith and trust in our Law Enforcement and in our ability to react to situations where we can be helpful and where we should be helpful. So, Racial Discrimination has no place in this country. I think of mother telling her young black son how to react when you get pulled over in a car. A much different conversation than many other people in this country are having with their young sons talking about how to react and that young man doesnt know how hes going to be received by the officer and the fear, really, that you would feel in that situation is very, very real. So many of us are overwhelmed by what weve seen with the george floyd situation and what we saw happening in minneapolis, but we do know that the vast majority of Police Officers in this country are good people. These are hard jobs, these are jobs that people have in their hearts and communities, who want to keep their communities safe, to want to have places to raise their families, that are safe and that are dedicated to the rule of law. And so, i think this is a moment to spur us to action so that every american citizen will know equal protection means that, it means equal protection and we go back, as james said, to the constitution and the rights provided. But it doesnt mean defunding the police. It means improving the police. Improving and restoring the faith in our Law Enforcement. And thats what the justice act does. One of the conversations that tim and i had just recently was about the chokehold situation. And ive said after watching the george floyd tape more than a few times, weve got to get rid of these if states and Law Enforcement agencies have banned that as a technique and a tactic. So im pleased weve gone in that direction and we think the result would be an elimination of the chokehold as a strategy of restraint. So i think theres absolutely no conflict between being pro civil rights and pro Law Enforcement and i think thats what you see reflected in this bill. So to my colleagues on the other side, we need to have this conversation in front of the American People on the house or the u. S. Senate, on the floor of the u. S. Senate where we can debate different ideas, debate different strategies, compromise like we do when we need to and we should and not be a failure to the people and the voices who are crying out daily for us to help. So thank you, tim, for your leadership and thank all of you on the team and this isnt the whole team. The rest of many, many people have weighed in on not just within the senate, but throughout the country and i thank them for that, thank you. Thank you, shelley and thank you all of you foraking time for us, and applaud senator scott as leader mcconnell said at the beginning, this is a topic many of us had in conference way too much times the last years, and im glad the leader put this on the schedule for the floor. Things that tim said, its a false binary to set this up as a debate between people of color on Law Enforcement. Communities of color and folks trying to maintain the public trust, we need to restore and build more public trust and that starts by narrowing the differences and figure out what can we get done to move forward. The fact that this is actually on the floor next week is a big deal and senator scott and his team, especially people on tims team have been working around the clock the last two weekends to get this to a place where the leader could decide to change the floor schedule and put this forward next week. So this should be a chance for us to move forward. Point number two, as tim said, the vast majority of Law Enforcement want to support the idea of america. They want to support stable, local justice that is reliable, and believable, and predictable and improving this union as james said, is the right creedal aspiration for america and we fail in lots of ways to live up to our belief and documents. And we want it get better and better at doing that. The vast majority of police many of us have spent a lot of time with Law Enforcement, not just in our states, but across the country the past weeks and you see police agonizing about these mistakes. And they want better hiring, better training, they want improvement, they want accountability. The truth is that the vast majority of cops are really great, but of those bad cops that exist, the singlemost important thing to hold bad cops accountable in the last decade is this thing and the reality of much more pervasive cameras has been the best thing to improve accountability and to expose bad cops. Thats good news, but its a reactive tool. The point of this exercise is to figure out how to get more proactive. This thing held cops accountable, because theres more pervasive technology. We need to use the technology of all that weve seen thats wrong to improve upon it by going from reactive to proactive. This bill next week, ought to get 100 votes to begin the debate. I think it ought to get 100 votes to end as well. If you believe its time to make a law, not just make a point, but improve an issue as opposed to hold onto it as a political issue, then i think that all people of goodwill and good faith will see the justice act, that tim has authored and contributed to, the justice act is the starting point of an a whole bunch of concensus issues, we can look how to do is better. A whole lot of things to make the unions more accountable and make them on the side of trying to improve local Law Enforcement, not spending a big chunk of their time, many unions have done, protecting bad apples and hiding the records of folks who got into trouble. There are a lot more debates we could have. And about qualified immunities. Lets have debates and votes on some of that stuff. We ought to be voting 1000 to try to get on this vote next week and try to make it better. Thank you for your interest in this and thank you, senator scott, for your leadership. We also have with us we also have with us congressman pete stauber, who is going to lead the efforts in the house. Let me say a few words about pete and i, talking about Police Reform and the importance of accountability and the importance of transparency. Pete comes with comes to us with a unique skillset and 25 years of service as a police officer. I believe you became a commander before you left. Pete also, unfortunately, has gruesome experience of being shot in the head in 1993 95, 1995 as an officer. So, he understands this issue from multiple perspectives, from a real world, on the street perspective, which i think adds tremendous value in the conversation has been said, not a binary choice. We have a Law Enforcement officer who has been working a long time on this issue and im thankful that youve joined the team and are going to help lead us to victory. So, thank you. Thanks for those kind words, senator scott. My name is congressman pete stauber and i proudly served as a Law Enforcement officer in my hometown of duluth, minnesota. As someone who swore an oath to serve and protect my community, i was devastated watching the video of george floyd dying at the hands of a Minneapolis Police officer, who swore that same oath. What i saw on that video goes against everything i stood for as a police officer. George floyds life mattered and the best way to honor his memory to enact meaningful and long lasting change in the policing community. Over the weeks, my colleagues and i have had healthy discussion in ways to enact this muchneeded change. As one of just a few members of congress who has worn the local uniform, im proud and eeg tower take part in these discussions. I believe that lasting change begins by implementing Community Policing standards at Police Departments across this nation. When Community Policing and practices are properly implemented, you end up policing with your community rather than policing your communities. It is a method that builds trust. In order to make Real Progress on public safety, we will need to restore trust between Law Enforcement and the communities they serve. This legislation will do just that. I believe with every fiber of my being, that Law Enforcement is necessary and that the overwhelming majority of men and women who serve in Law Enforcement are good and moral people. The Police Officers who i have had the privilege of working with over the years, had he they had to work every day and make great personal sacrifices to keep their communities safe from harm, rather than defunding the police, which will only make our communities less safe. We must work to increase transparency and accountability within policing. We are going to have to leave this briefing, which you can continue to watch online at cspan. Org. The senate is about to come in and its part of cspans long Time Commitment to bring you live gavel to gavel coverage of congress. Senators will continue debate of a public lands m