Alexander, thank you. Thank you for giving voice to a serious issue. First like to associate my remarks, 100 with everything senator scott just said. Somehow im supposed to speak after he just said it. The frustration that ive had over the past couple of days is weve worked very hard on pulling legislation together. Weve talked to people all over. Ive talked to people all over oklahoma of all backgrounds, talked to members of the community, talked to Law Enforcement, talked to leadership in Law Enforcement. Weve worked to be able to build a coalition of ideas, things that would pass. Answering the question that tim scott started with, could we pull together a piece of legislation that would actually help . Not to just pass something so we can walk away, pat each other on the back and say we passed something knowing quietly it isnt going to make a difference. Is there something we could do that would actually make a difference . And over the weeks we have worked to be able to identify what could pass, what could make a difference, what answers the question that everyones aski asking . We actually didnt look whether it was a republican or democrat idea. We just asked the question, what would make the difference . Because i dont believe equal justice under the law is owned by a party. But its been fascinating to me the questions that ive had over the past couple of days, as members of the media would quietly pull me aside and say, hey, are republicans going to be able to pass a bill on race . Because quietly theyre asking the question. You know, all of republicans are racist, are you going to be able to pull this off . Thats really what theyre saying in the background. Over and over again, ive heard it through the media and seen it thrown out there, those republicans are racists, i dont think theyll be able to pass anything dealing with race. As this dividing message continues to go out weve done our work, as we have because we also believe in equal justice upped the law and as a friend of mine said to me a couple of weeks ago, we also believe that we should continue to work towards a more Perfect Union. See, for me, its not only a practical issue, its not only a family issue, its not only a friendship issue, its not only a basic freedom for liberty issue. Its not a basic constitutional issue, for me its also a biblical issue. You can go back as many way as you want to in scripture, and youll see repetitive themes for equal weights and measures, the first challenge to government when literally the jews are establishing their first government, god is saying make sure theres equal weights and measures. A simple way of saying, whether youre rich or poor, whether youre a foreigner, whether youre in a member, in or out, everyone is to be treated the same, equal weight. Equal measures. Find that passage over and over and over again through the old testament. Read it all the way to the book of the revelation at the end. And in the book of the revelation at the end, theres this gathering around the throne thats picture in that at the very end of the gathering of the kingdom of god. As they gather around the throne, its described as every tribe, every nation. Every language, every people all gathered. See for me this is a biblical issue as well as being a personal issue. But for us as a nation, its a legal issue. And its where we find inconsistencies in the application of the law, we are to correct it. And to do what we can to be able to make it right. This bill is designed with a simple statement in mind. How can we provide accountability, transparency, and training in Law Enforcement so that the good cops shine and those that are bad apples in the mix, the light shines on them. Thats all were asking. And we want to see things chan change, as people in my towns across my state want to see things change. And want to know that this is not just a vote thats partisan vote, that its a vote to actually get something solved. It wasnt that long ago that this body was gathering and unanimously on a 3 trillion bill dealing with a major problem in america, covid19. Why dont we get together again, hash out the issues, and unanimously come to some decisions again on a major problem in america, injustice. Now, we cant pass something that bans racism. I wish we could, we would have all taken that vote, but we cant ban racism. Thats passed on through families and through individuals. Children arent born racist. Theyre raised racist. So families have to make a decision of what theyre going to do in their family. The National Conversation about race doesnt happen in this room. The National Conversation on race happens in kitchens and dining rooms. But we can do things about justice. So the simple things that we try to be able to gather, the identifies, again, arent partisan. There are solutions from all over the place, some democrats and some republicans. And weve pulled these together and ask a simple question, about our democratic members take a vote with us next week to move to this bill, to amend it, debate it, talk about it, have a real dialog, and then pass something that we think will work. Will it look exactly like this . It will probably look a lot like this because their aspect looks almost identical to this in the house bill right now. Will there be additional ideas . Probably. Why dont we debate it and talk about it. Why dont we vote to open it up and discuss it . And why dont we actually try to solve it . There are things like if theres Bodily Injury or the death in Police Custody that all of that information has to go into the fbi so we can disseminate and try to get transparenc transparency. There are those who do noknock warrants. We dont have information about that. We know theyre happening across the country and conversation that maybe we should end part of it, keep part of it, and what would that look like . We really have no information gathered. And no way to track that. Yes dont we get information in on noknock warrants so we can make a decision thats an enveloped decision and then act on it. Why dont we deal with some basic problems that are out there that weve seen several times in some of the worst moments. Something happens and Law Enforcement is not wearing a body camera and its one opinion against another opinion. Why dont we get more body cameras on the streets and make sure that those body cameras are actually turned on all the time. Theres new technology in body cameras that actually automatically turn on when theres a call. So Law Enforcement doesnt have to worry about, i forgot to turn it on. It turns itself on. Why dont we incentivize that to encourage the new body cameras with automatic features to be able to turn it on so weve always got footage. Why dont we hold people to account if theres a false Police Report thats filed. Because in several cases of late. When the incident was over, a written Police Report was filed and then later cell cam video came out that was completely different than the original Police Report. Well, thats a false report. Why dont we hold a bad apple to account . Why dont we end choke holds . Most departments have. Why not nationwide . Why dont we say to a department, if you want a federal grant for any Law Enforcement person, you cant get that or reduced amount, or a big deduction unless your department has already banned choke holdsment basically lay the marker out there and say, we expect you to take action on this. Why dont we deal with the issues that are before us that people are asking questions about . And where we lack information, lets go get it. You see, has several years ago that senator peters on the democratic side and senator cornyn on the republican side put out a proposal to be able to do a commission to be able to study these issues and a bunch more to be able to ga ne ner gather these. It passed in the Senate Unanimously and died in the house. Lets bring it back up. We were trying to do work in the senate to head some of this off. Lets do it again and see what we can actually do. When we find departments that are recruiting and their department does not match the ethnicity of their community, why dont we provide grants for that community and that Police Department to be able to have a black recruiter to recruit more black officers, and then to be able to help them through the earliest days at the Police Academy financially to make sure that that department matches that community because one of the great gains of the last 30 years has been community policing, allowing officers to be able to get out of their car, meet the community, to be able to engage so that the communities together are policing. Why dont we do that . I did a ride along with an officer several years ago and ill never forget as were riding along through his community, his neighborhood where he always patrolled, as we drove through, there was an elderly lady sweet as she could be sitting on her front porch. As we drove by, i said does she sit out there every day. He laughed and said, yes, she sits out there every day. I said have you ever stopped to meet her . And he hesitated for a long time and he said, no, i never have. Community policing does make a difference when you get a chance to meet the people in the community, get to know them and you share the responsibility together actually working to solve the problems that we face. Re were laying down what could not just make a message. Let open it up. Lets not have heated debate. Lets have debate that solves the problem. So at the end of this we know what were solving, and we solve it. And then we keep going. With that, i yield the floor. Senator from South Carolina. Thank you. So, one, id like to Say Something about senator scott. I know how hard hes worked on this and this has not been an easy enterprise for tim. Hes a conservative republican who happens to be africanamerican and hes decided to take the lead on something thats very important to the country, and he has experiences that i dont. He has been stopped multiple times on capitol hill. Ive never been stopped and one year he was stopped seven times for lane changes. The point is that tim believes and every africanamerican male ive talked to in the last couple weeks, is told early on, if youre stopped by the cops, watch what you do, keep your hands on the wheel, dont go for the dash because it can end badly. I dont know how that happened, but its real and for us not to realize that would be a huge mistake. So let me be on record as saying, i understand that if youre an africanamerican male your experience with the police is different than mine and its unacceptable and it needs to stop. So, how do you stop it . You bring about change. So what kind of change are we looking for . Our democratic friends have a list of changes, i think its justice in policing. The house is marking it up. Here is what i would say to my democratic colleagues, stop lecturing me. You had eight years under president obama to do the things in the justice and policing act and 90 of it you never brought up. Im not saying were blameless, but there has not been this sense of urgency to deal with these problems institutionally like there is today. Why . Because mr. Floyd, and a few other things, all happening together. Tim said in 2016 we had our chance. These episodes come and they go. The question for the country is, will anything ever change . The only way its going to change is to find Common Ground. So the proposal that senator scott has collected along with other colleagues has bipartisan support, but if its not enou enough, im willing to listen to more. Senator sasse was with me and we had a fire hour hearing and we learned a lot. I learned that the Police Officer looking like the community is important, senator lankford. But more important is you live where you police. And i asked whats more important, your race or Community Attachment . He said Community Attachment. Youre less likely to hurt someo someone. We need more women, apparently women do the job a lot better than men. I havent heard one person come forward and say i had a bad experience with a policewoman. So more women would be helpful, but the main thing is we need people from the community being in charge of policing that community with a system thats more accountable. So, cory booker and i have worked together on a lot of things, great guy. Tim and cory are good friends and i admire the heck out of tim scott, im not going to take any more time, hes one of the most decent people i ever met and were lucky in South Carolina to have him, and i think the country is lucky. So the bottom line, cory said two things in the hearing then. Theres two issues that have to be addressed or nothing else matters. 242 and qualified immunity. I wrote them down. For those who are not c conversant in 242, or qualified immunity. Qualified immunity redeveloped over time. Allows people to sue governmental entities for abusive force, for excessive force. Theres nothing in the statute about an objective standard with a recently prudent Police Officer in the same circumstances acted accordingly. Theres nothing about good faith. So Justice Thomas is a pretty conservative guy. He wanted to revisit qualified immunity. I dont know how he would substantive come out on this issue, but his denying teshry concept has exploded across analysis. This is Clarence Thomas. If you presented to me qualified immunity in its current form as a legislative proposal, i would vote hell no. Police officers need not worry about losing their house or being sued if they act in good faith in frochling duties that are hard on any good day, but when Police Departments time and time again failed to do the things necessary to instill good policing, i think they should be sukt and accountable like any other business so theres Common Ground here. Not one democrat suggested to me to make the individual officer civilly liable under 1983, but ive had democrats suggest to me that the standard has become almost absolute immunity. And all kinds of business. Being in the policing business is not your normal police. There needs fto be a filter. Its time in my view to look at the development of the Community Doctrine relates to the 1983 underlying statute and see if we can make it better, not get it. To my democratic friends, if you want today eliminate it, it would be a short conversation. If you want to reform it so that municipalities and agencies and organizations running Police Department will have some protection, but not absolute immunity, lets talk. Maybe we can get there if its that important, lets at least try. Thats what the legislative process is all about. 242, it allows the federal government to bring charges against an individual for denying another american their Constitutional Rights. This is about policing, but not exclusive to policing. The presiding officer is from georgia, im from South Carolina. There was a time in the south where juries would nullify all the evidence in front of them because the victim was a black man and the perpetrator was white and could you present a mountain of evidence and youd get an acquittal in like 15 minutes. So we came up with a concept to allow the federal government to intervene in cases like this and hold somebody liable for violating the Constitutional Rights of another american under cover of law. The standard to prosecute is willful. Youve got to prove that the Police Officer willfully understood the constitutional right and violated it. This is not 1965. Mr. Floyd is going to be prosecuted. So, while its important to talk about 242, most states where these events have occurred have acted responsibly. We dont need the federal government sitting in judgment of every cop in the country. What we do need is a system of accountability and ill talk to you about 242, but i think that that is not the issue. Whats the issue is that Police Departments who are immune from liability, when they engage in abusive conduct over and over are unlikely to change until that changes. You can put the money you want to with training and improving best Business Practices and gladly accept your money and if they dont do it right, they dont get the money. Well add one thing to the mix and oh, by the way, if you shoot a dog and you wind up killing a kid, your Police Officer shouldnt have shot the dog anyway in a fashion to kill the kid by the dog, youre going to wind up having your ass in court. That will change things. Ive been a lawyer. I know how people feel about this. If youre exposed in terms of your conduct being subject to a review by a court and a jury, youre all of a sudden going to think differently. Now, dont misconstrue what i am saying. I am not for abolishing qualified immunity. I am for revisiting the concept because i think its grown too much from judicially created fiat, its time for the legislative body, for us to speak as to what we would like to have happen to the statute that we created that now has a component to it that was never envisioned when it was originally passed. Thats what Clarence Thomas is telling us as a nation we need to do. So, to my friends on the other side, if its about qualified immunity lets talk, if its about 242, lets talk. If its about keeping this issue alive, dont waste my time. Weve all had plenty of time around here to do better and now we have a chance to actually do some good. The only way were going to do some good is talk and the only way you get a law passed is to engage in debate. If you dont want to debate the topic, you dont want to have amendments about the topic, that tells me all i need to know where youre coming from. I yield to my friend from nebras nebraska. Mr. President. Senator from nebraska. Thank you, mr. President. I want to just start by saying thank you to my friend from South Carolina, lindsey graham, the Senate Judiciary committee, but senator scott and hard work of the team over the course of the last two weeks as theyve been working around the clock to lead our sixperson working group. I want to thank tim not just for his leadership, but his speech 30 minutes ago, for his spirit, that speech is a speech that needs to be watched by every american and i sincerely hope that the 100 people in this room will try to come together and get an outcome, and not just a political issue thats happened so often around here. I think people, if we have the process that was the custom in the senate until a few decades ago, committees happening in the morning and the senate convening for most of the afternoon, if this room was actually full when tim scott delivered his speech, itd be real tough for people to be talking about not voting on the notion to proceed next week and getting on this piece of legislation where we could then debate it and argue about it and fight about technical pieces here and there, and figure out how we make it better, but wed be on a piece of legislation and wed be trying to get an outcome and i sincerely hope that thats true. I sincerely hope people listen to tim scotts speech from today. George floyds murder obviously shocked a nation, but it shocked us in two ways. It shocked us on the one hand because we saw a man being murdered for eight minutes and 46 seconds and we saw three other Police Officers stand by while he was murdered. But it also shocked us because it reminded us yet again, that americas struggle for equal justice under the law is far, far from over. The american creed is a beautiful thing. The american creed celebrates the dignity, the inherent selfworth, the fact that we believe or so many of our founders believed that people were created in the image of god, as image bearers and that dignity is male and female, black and white, every man, woman and child in this country is created with inherent dignity. Theyre beautiful and that creed is beautiful. That proposition that all men are created equal should inspire every generation of american. And we arent doing a very good job right now of passing on the glories of that creed to the next generation. It is a beautiful and profound creed. But throughout our history, our failures to live up to that creed have been ugly, over and over again, and George Floyds murder was horrific for that man and for his family and for everyone in his communities, minneapolis, houston and other place where that man left, made a mark, but it was also horrific because it was yet another reminder of all the ways that weve failed to give up to our creed. The creed is beautiful and our execution has so often been ugly. And when communities of color have lost faith in Law Enforcement, we arent living up to that creed and when an american tells you that he fears being pulled over for driving while black, and we need a lot more conversations in a lot more communities so people know this experience. Again, tim, one of my closest friends in this body, the experiences hes had with Law Enforcement in South Carolina are different than the ones in nebraska. The experiences on capitol hill with Law Enforcement has been different than the experiences ive had on capitol hill. No one should be wearing skin pigment or racial heritage as something that changes our experience of Law Enforcement, and yet, thats regularly the case. Thats ugly, the creed is beautiful and our attempts to become and to be a more Perfect Union and to give up to the glories of that creed, thats an important part of our shared project together. At the risk of sounding too theologic theological, east of eden, sin is ugly, and includes the original sin. That tells us we have work to do, as 330 million americans, but work to do as 100 senators. What that should mean is that next week, were going to be in this body trying to live up to that creed and to do more. Theres a lot of technical stuff inside this bill and as tim said, as senator scott said, 70 of whats in this bill is the justice act is pretty darn noncontroversial largely because its lifted in summarizing many pieces also in the house of representatives democrat bill. The justice act puts forward a number of common sense reforms, to force accountability that has been stated on the floor many times today, but i want to state yet again today. When police use force theres a voluntary opportunity today for them to report that to the fbi. We want to make that mandatory. We want all of that data to be captured and passed along transparency on all uses of lethal force. Including increasing police resources. Theres a lot of training that needs to be done better in this country. Practices in local Law Enforcement when you look at 15, 16,000, whatever the current number is of local entities that have the capability and capacity to have Law Enforcement authorities, those policing powers. Theres a lot of diversity practices and some of those practices are improving, but bad still. And so, tim in our legislation, want to try to use the federal grant making powers to squeeze out some of those bad practices. We want to see trust rebuilt between this nations communities and the police. We reject the false binary that you have to make a choice between being on the side of communities of color or being on the side of Law Enforcement. No, we dont want that to be the choice. We want the choice to be Law Enforcement to get better and communities of color to have more trust. We want to see more collaboration, we want to see more progress and frankly thats what the vast majority of police and what the vast majority of departments want. The overwhelming majority of americans, republican and democrat. Women and men, black and white, the overwhelming majority of americans want us to build more trust. And we can do that in this body next week. We want to strive toward equal protection under the law. And that starts with trying to narrow the differences and figuring out what we can do to move Forward Together and thats what this bill does. This bill is an architectural frame to do a bunch of good things that are pretty darn noncontroversial and do a bunch of things that we can build on in a debate and amendment processment we should be passing something 1000. There will be debate, amendment votes underneath that will be contentious, but we should have a legislative process to start 1000. And we should be passing 1000 in the middle there should be amendments with are people argue the best way we do the particulars. Theres no reason we shouldnt be moving forward. We can get this done. We can take another step to make americas beautiful creed a reality for every single one of gods children. Thats what we should do and we should do it without delay. I yield to my colleague from West Virginia. Mr. President. The senator from West Virginia. Thank you, mr. President. Im really pleased to be here with my fellow senator from nebraska and the other members of the small team really blessed to be asked to join senator scott as he led us to a where we are today, which is introduced as the justice act. Im thinking where the great talents lie in the United States senate and pretty much all of us do pretty well, which is talk. We talk too much. Senator scott doesnt talk too much and he said that about himself. I can tell you the skill that he has that a lot of us need more of. And often when im asked by School Children whats the best skill to have and thats the ability to listen. And he has listened for years and years. Hes not just lived this, hes listened. And he said just yesterday he was with the family of one of the victims and a very moving day for him. So im here today to rise in support with my colleagues for the justice act. I join the overwhelming majority of americans and West Virginians who in sadness and frustration and sorrow when we witnessed this horrifying video of the murder of george floyd by the minneapolis Police Department. You know, its absolutely unacceptable. But you know what . The vast majority of our Law Enforcement officers here and around the country are just like us. They want to have a great and peaceful nation. They want to have great and peaceful communities. They want their families to feel safe in their homes and out in their streets of their Community Just like we do and a lot of them took their oath as seriously and do their best to protect our communities. So, its not enough to say that the death of george floyd was a terrible isolating tragedy because we know that many of these have preceded this date, but i said its almost like picking up a balloon. Popping a balloon in this unrest underneath and questions and sorrow has been festering. Here we are today. I think a great majority of us want to put this energy and frustration into action. We want something substantive. We can tell the american people, we listen, we heard, we feel this and we want to find solutions. We have to recognize that every time that force is used inappropriately by Law Enforcement that our Justice Department has eroded. We have to understand our history where black americans have too frequently been denied their basic rights. Its our job to make sure that americans, regardless of race, that Law Enforcement is there to protect their family and they trust that. The trust factor is where the erosion has been remarkably in view, the lack of trust. Its our job to act. Does it mean defunding . In my opinion it doesnt mean defunding the police. Improving the police and equal protection is he that everyone has basic protections to everyone and were all equal in the eyes of justice and in the eyes of the law. So, i think that weve seen looting, weve seen officers who have lost their lives. Weve seen an underbelly to our country thats been difficult to watch, but what weve seen, too, is an outcry of the american citizens peace. I peacefully protesting what they see as inequity if their lives. When i was in the crowd, i was right there in washington when a crowd of about 150 protesters, i was right there and they walked by me, very peacebly, signs, and chanting. Most of the people in that group were probably under 30 years old, in solidarity, a lot of black faces, a lot of white faces, young men and women who felt that lack of trust. So we look how people have exercised their rights, its a beautiful thing to saee. At the base of it were hearing the same things in our day, in our states every day. So while we want to know that our declaration of independence has lived up to and that the 14th amendment, which guaranteed that no governments can be faced with their Constitutional Rights. A century passed of reconstruction more than a century. A century passed until we passed civil rights legislation in 1964. One of the moments of pride for me, my father was representing West Virginia in 1964 to help make sure that passed. I actually have a pen that was used in signing that in my office and a picture of my dad at the white house when it was signed. So our job is not done. When i hear the voices of mothers who say that theyre fearful that their son might not survive a simple traffic stop, or they have to have certain behaviors, as senator sasse said, its so different from what he learned growing up as a young man how to interact with Police Officers in that situation. You know, we cant have those anguished cries in that double system anymore and thats what this bill is about. Im proud to be with senator scott in introducing the justice act. Its been interesting to watch him and all of us, really, listen to the different segments of society, our friends, and neighbors and police and members of the communities of color. Our religious communities, our news comment taatorcommentators and every single one asked questions. You dont have a good history in this body of having democrats and republicans joining together to get something done and how do you thi think . We did the Great American outdoors act, several months ago, we did the cares act. We can do it, with are theres a will, we can do it and if we dont do it, were failing so many people. Were failing ourselves. Were failing our countries, our communities. Were failing our Law Enforcement communities. So i would say that we need to finish not finish, but begin this job of a difficult conversation and make sure that we get this bill onto the senate floor, debate it in front of the general public. You know, when we start debating things on the senate floor in front of the public, now what happens . The same thing that happened during the impeachment trial. Noi all of us were getting all kind of input from people around because people are watching it and seeing whats actually going on. Thats what we need. So if we want to have discussions on qualified immunity, if we want to ban choke holds and our bill does, i do definitively. Lets talk about it in front of the american people. I believe that Law Enforcement has a lot of great people that work in and around Law Enforcement, but they need the equipment. They need the cameras. They need to have the realtime evidence and the realtime evidence of wrongdoing and evidence of doing it right. Its a protective device. We should have everybody having the availability that in Law Enforcement. We also require that Law Enforcement agencies retain disciplinary records on officers and make sure that they check an officers record from other agencies before making a hiring decision. Kind of thought that was going on anyway, i sort of did. But we need to make sure and make clear that thats what we absolutely want to do. The bill incentivizes state and local Police Agencies to ban the choke holds. As i mentioned earlier, im for even more definitive language on that. It also provide much training in all kind of areas, deescalation or if an officer is in a situation where another officer is using overwhelming force improperly, that that officers trained how to interdict that situation. We saw that happen in minneapolis, sadly the officers did not, but maybe they didnt know exactly how to do it, when to do it, what form it should take. Lets explore that. So to keep our Community Safe we need our Police Officers, but we need trust in our law enforpt. There should be no conflict between a pro civil rights bill and a pro Law Enforcement bill. They should be able to be joined together. So the supports our Police Officers bringing about positive change that will guarantee equal protection to all of our citizens. The Police Reform bill will make a difference in advancing our constitutional ideals and Community Safer. Im fraud stand with senator scott, but i want to stand with the entire body to talk about the ways to make this bill even better, to take the 70 of this bill that we have shared ideals on, and shared ideas, and put those into action. And to not dither here, to not score political points, to say to the american people, these are tough decisions and were going to have it and were going to have it where you can see it right here on the floor of the United States senate. So, thank you very much. Im proud to be with my colleagues and with that, i yield the floor. 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