I stand in strong support and solidarity of my good friend from south carolina. Five years ago and that bible study and then to pull out a gun and shoot nine people. Mr. President , you and i not long after attended one of the funerals in charleston south carolina. C any other city in america were not have dealt with it the way charleston did. They did that with love. And because of his time in the black leaders in that town and then to overcome that tragedy. Five years ago tim scott and then we ended up in the same place we are now doing absolutely nothing. How many more black men will have to die in america for this body to stop playing politicsle with race . Its very clear to me working on Justice Reform was 75 billion into the most economically challenged communities in our t country because of tim scott and President Trump the historically black colleges and universities are stronger today because the President Trump than ever the time to act is now to stop playing politics stop pandering to the Democratic Base and lets get something done. This bill was never intended to be the endall but for constructive debate here we are with only two democraticrg senators. I yield back. Mr. President there is a scripture in the bible in the book of ezekiel and that scripture that is to simply say there is danger coming there is danger coming. Five years ago and here we are five years later and with the streets of america weve seen more unrest and more challenging situations that there is danger coming. And the blood to ezekiel will not be on the hands if there is danger coming then the blood is on his hands. Mr. President there is danger. The source of this danger is not the failure is not on the slur at this time. No. This is a symptom that is right in front of us. It is a symptom of a much deeper issue. For those in poverty. And there is much worse poverty in america and around the world when you come home and hit the light switch the kind that was attached to the up. And you picked it those that have lived in worst poverty but i live there. And that hopeless kid in america. In poverty in a singleparent household and under the impression the only way i could escape poverty is through athletics or entertainment. Seven years old to 14 years old i drifted and they all let me in the wrong direction. Embarrassed my mom who was working 16 hours a day because i felt there was no hope in orthis country for a little black boy like me. Fourteen years old. Failed spanish, english, world geography, and civics. I will say this body as a whole is failing but as the lord would have it i have an amazing mother who believes its our responsibility to get me out of the hard situations and after meeting mentor getting through Summer School they redirected me and with the help of a powerful family and a whole lot of faith graduated on time, cut up with my class, i got a scholarship earning a degree in political science. Along the way and the urban league and i know part of my responsibility to be socially engaged to make a difference so i didnt even think about of joining the Republican Party. Why would i ever think about joining the Republican Party . Every africanamerican in every black person i knew of led to the Democrat Party because its better to have a seat in the room and to be outside. Losing a vote on a piece of legislation today that would have led to systemic change in the relationship between the communities of color and the Law Enforcement community. That somehow someway and the Law Enforcement and communities of color. Thats just not true. In this spoke to the important issues. We wouldnt be here if not to the death of yet another africanamerican his murder is why george floyd has given us the opportunity to lead. And my friends on the other side. Just said no. They just said no. And they didnt just say no to the legislation but along the way i sat down with many of them. Senator schumer sent a letter there were five things in the legislation that needed to be improved not just five, theres 20 is a 20 amendments. And they walked out. This is not legislation but this is a process beyond that one piece of legislation. And those institutions of authority and power in this nation because we play small ball. And to play for president ial politics. And to play for the kid. If you dont like what you see, change it. Offer them opportunity. Mr. On Mitch Mcconnell will not give you 20 amendments he said he will amendments. We went to a press conference yesterday they dont want an open process. They want one thing. What is it . What is it you dont like and that Data Collection area. Tell me the problem. They were not collecting data. So i flipped through the pages and realize it is for serious Bodily Injury and death we want to collect data on all pieces of force and put in the amendment and i will support it. Contention. Tell me another. We need to band the no knock warrants and i said your they billl does not they are no knock warrants . It lands it for federal agents is not there was no secret Service Agent showing up at rihannas door that was a local police department. So the fact they want to band no knock warrants so this tells me this is not about the underlying issue. Its bigger than that. So tell me any issue that you have. So we went to deescalation training. And in the legislation. And the legislation. So you dont ban choke holds. I swear it was in there somewhere. There is this thing called the constitution i cannot ban choke holds eric garner situation were not have been cured by their ban on choke holds its for federal agents. Our legislation instructed the attorney general to band choke holds for federal agents. We said we would reduce funding by 20 percent they reduced by 12. So our penalty applies that penalty on the other side and this is supposed to be theue issu issue. Mr. President. Im not sure because i said on choke holds it is your definition of choke holds so i assume you think of a chokehold that there is a distinction of carotid airflow versus blood flow. And then to change it. They said were not here. So with that basic issue. About 70 other on 70 percent of the bill. So parts of the bill to etve the entire process forward. What about the amendment . Those just fix everything. So i find it is disingenuous so if the managers amendment wont do it if they say that 20 amendments wont l do it then you have an open process on the floor of the senate to require 60 votes to get off of the bill then what pray tell is the problem . And then i suddenly realized the actual problem is not what is being offered but who was offering it. It took me a long time to figure out the most obvious thing in the room im not sure anyone reporting on the bill has read the bill. I see another editorial that says dont do this. So finally its the who. I have dealt with the problem and is a black man i get the flu thats one of the reasons why went to senator mcconnell and set i want to leave the conversation who has experienced firsthand Racial Discrimination and racial profiling by Law Enforcement but im your guy because this is my issue. As a poor kid growing up in a poor neighborhood and i might not come back. This is a serious issue for every single kid this is the issue not the legislative issue but do we matter we had an opportunity for as long as it takes and as many as amendments as it takes to get to the issue that says yes you matter but 56 people said yes. For short. For short. To say yes to having enough information to direct training and resources in such a way that we could hold people accountable and to say yes to having a powerful tool to have chokeholds. But that is the problem by the way. And then as United States senator i experience that. I understand the traffic stop. I understand im walking down o the young lady clutches her purse. That instinct is to get further away i dont want any issues. I understand that. But the stereotyping of republicans is just as toxic and employees and to the outcomes of the vulnerable communities in this nation thats the issue. When Speaker Pelosi says one of the most heinous things i murdcan imagine that the republicans are trying to coverup the murder of george floyd with our legislation. Thats not politics. That is you lose and sooner or later you will lose. Every kid around the nation that her that nonsense lost that moment. What has become evident to me is that she knows something that we all know she knows that she can say that because the democrats have a monopoly on the back. And no matter the return and loyalty the most loyal part of the democrat construct black communities and the loyalty of the people and then to go down and then to devalue your customer. At the very minimum 70 percent of what would be important for the people we thinkin we serve. But the 20 amendment the managers amendment, but instead of going now they decided to punch the ball until the election because they believe that the polls reflect the 15point deficit on our side and then in january if they get a chance they can have a bill without our support. But no amendments in the house are republican. On theirn bill. But here in the senate and thens. To have an amendment but not in the house not under Speaker Pelosi been under leader mcconnell you get at least 20. That way is not good enough because the irony of the story y is that today and through the rest of june and to get 70 percent of what you want how does that work for the little kids how does that work around the countryt was 70 percent and then you have zero and then you wait until the election to get more . Okay. Wait you can win the election and add on the other 20 percent. And that is a party that reaches out and that is necessary for what actually is happeninge but if you dont see it on tv or msnbc that it must not be true. Let me just say this. We are willing to compete for every vote everywhere. Is not words of encouragement encouragement. Its not. But he listens and at the end of the conversation he simply says tell me how to help those i offended. I didnt know what to say. Its not supposed to be funny but it is. They listened, he leaned in and tell me who i offended. He was concerned enough about the communities he literally just offended and was ready to go to work on their behalf in the opportunity zones. I thought while this might work again so i went back and said there is a lot of work that needs to be done around the historically black colleges and universities. He said yes and let me just say this when we started saying yes, we controlled the white house the senate and the white house. It wasnt because theer democrat said to get our vote you have to do this. That isnt what happened. He said yes because the Republican Party said yes. We stood together with all three leaders of government under our control. We have opportunity zones. We started the process of reinventing historically black colleges and universities and at the head of the United Negro College fund. The literally more money for these colleges ever, brought to you by the Republican Party. I said if thats working letso do that again. So we went to Stem Cell Research for sex assault sickle cell anemia. He said yes. The chairman of the Health Committee they were fighting over funding for the historicallybc black colleges ad we made it permanent, permanent funding led by a republican chairman of the education committee, President Trump signed we have delivered historic funding and permanent funding. Im not going to go throug throe pre pandemic numbers in the communities for unemployment. It not only had a record low but we have Labor Force Participation rates increasing. Onlet me say that differently ad not only to beget mor do we getr black and brown folks, the number of folks in the community started having an increase in the number of folks working. Its called basic conservativeil politics. It works. Th two thirds of and the full economy all of them started rising. Covid19 hit us and what did we do . We approve 2. 3 trillion another 500 or so billion and 3. 4 that would be multiplied by probably seven or eight, 6 trilliondollar relief package. What did we do, we targeted to Small Businesses to save Small Businesses and they added a billion dollars more to the historically black colleges and universities. Let me tell you the biggest threat. The biggest threat is this Republican Party keeps showing up and delivering a. Ive got 12 more pages to go. Its like being at church. 12 more pages of accomplishments to talk about. Im not going to, but im just here to tell you if we passed up with the house we passed the criminal Justice Reform that walked up disproportionately. The can party past the Justice Reform. The im frustrated because it isnt a competition. Its the best idea. Competition for how to improve the poorest performing schools in america and in the Public Education system that is consistently in black and brown communities at the zip code determines the outcome of your life because you are not going to have aca good education becae we will not touch the teachers unions. Governor scott did before he was a senator. One ofam the reasons i campaignd for him because he was serious about helping the poor kids get up and move on. Me just close with this. I dont know what its going to take to wake up the entire nation about the importance, because look at the results, and by the way with this bill has gone and next week we are looking at Something Else we will forget about this and move on if you know what is going to happen, something bad. And we will be right here talking about what should have been done, could have been done. And detroit, atlanta, minneapolis, philadelphia all of these communities are run by democrats for decades to do whatever they want to do and look at the results of the most Vulnerable People in the nation. The. I dont question that desire of the cosponsors of the bill just as i hope colleagues on the other side and questioned the sincerity of those who cosponsored their bill. But then to offer a word of explanation. Those that voted no on the motion to proceed to do and no one walked. We voted no on two. That is a stiff charge. What i want to say is we voted no on what ann who. We tried it the wrong way. Lets try it the right way. My colleague max as if this discussion is over. Its only over for those who want it to be over. We tried it the wrong way. Lets try it the right way. I think everyone in the chamber knows what i mean by this. This is an important topic that is exciting with the legitimate concern. There are two good faith tells but that doesnt mean that i do not see virtues in the bill. Ive only been in the senate for seven years. Im not an expert on procedure as some who are standing in the chamber right now. But there is a clear path to the Bipartisan Police reform bill that will do a good job and speak to an american that wants to see leadership that is bipartisan and its obvious. They are both in the province of athe Judiciary Committee chaird by the republicans in south carolina. I serve on the Armed Services committee. T every year. Do we introduce it and let the members have the ability to offer amendments that can be voted on by simple majority voting committee. And whenn no one has an amendmt left, we then have a final bill and we both got out overwhelminglye in the keynotef the committee two weeks ago and we will be taking it up on the floor. With senator alexander and senator murray we tackleug tough issues with a committee that has big personalities. I have a couple of them in a room with me now and great ideological diversity on the committee. But we take up tough issues and they dont always solve them but we do it when we put our minds to it. That is the right way to do things. It reflects the traditions of the body because they run the committee that allows those that have devoted themselves to have issues or Armed Services issues with judiciary issues to offer their thoughts. When these bills were introduced, i assumed a committee ably led by senators graham and feinstein would have a markup without offering amendments with a 50 vote threshold and the report of the bipartisan bill. Why would the Judiciary Committee not do it . I think the vote today says we are not going to do it my way or the highway. We ought to do it the right way. The way we do this, the way they did the First Step Act, criminal Justice Reform, democrats and republicans working together in the committee and negotiating with Jared Kushner and others. We did something good old can take credit for. What about the care act . Theres a reasonf to exampl thef this, it was an unusual one. We were under an emergency, socially distant from each other we couldnt even be in the same room as we were negotiating, and it was in multiple committee jurisdictions, so it wasnt as if one committee was taking it up. But ther there was goodfaith bipartisan negotiation on the different pieces of the. One day the leader called us all back on a sunday to vote on a bipartisan negotiated to build on a different version. And again, democrats on this side of the aisle said we are not ready to proceed. We are in the middle of bipartisan discussions. We are not ready to proceed to o bipartisan bill because we are in the middle of bipartisan discussions so we will have a payoff for the country. The and guess what happened, three days later after that we were here on the floor voting yes. The program for the businesses and state and local government in hospitals and Nursing Homes ine Healthcare Providers we votd no on my way oret the highway ad we can get to a yes and even if members of this body were being diagnosed with coronavirus or buy exposed to it, we stayed at the table until we could get the work done and we did it for the good of the country senator king and i on a sent a letter to the two leaders and the judiciary chair and we set for god sakes with a nation that is crying out for solution that can show some unity, please do what we know what worked and what has worked. Let the Judiciary Committee take it up promptly. Let them work and report it to the floor and we can do this before the august recess in a way where everyone hasin the chance to participate and they can get a win on a topic that is critically important. It is my hope that we will still be with us. Again some of the conversations it is as if this is now over and in the Rearview Mirror not to be returned to him till after november. I do not accept that. These bills are pending. We have a Judiciary Committee that can do the work. I went this morning to introduce a judicial nominee and ask the members of the committee if you took these have been the committee, could youav find a bipartisan result and the answer they gave to me was guess. I didnt know for the plot or the who. I voted no for how. I know we can do this bill and sshame on us on a matter of such seriousness if we dont engage in a process from this seriousness matches the gravity of the moment and with that i will yield back the floor of. The senator from nebraska. The senator from maryland was. Irst. I have 40 seconds. Thank you. I respect senato the senator frm virginia but i would like to know from the record somebody thats spent a lot of time under senator scott leadership, senator cain repeatedly said it my way or the highway and i think its important formp us to admit this is an open amendment process thats been proposed in some of the democrats have come to some of the meetings negotiate for frankly stunned when he went from five amendments to 22 what number do you want. Its the opposite of my favorite highway. And open amendment process where dozens have been offered it isnt a minor way or the highway approach. [inaudible] you remember the Judiciary Committee. One of the most dysfunctional in the committee. When you have marks up in the Judiciary Committee on a bill at the First Step Act into someone democrat or republican proposes an amendment, isnt the standard a 5 50 voted against the majoriy of the committee its added to the bill . Hispanic there are so many different procedures i think you said you were a rocky youve been here seven years. I am new on judiciary is that there are a lot of new ones. The way you define it is usually the model, but theres a bunch of stuff that happens. Youve asked for a question falling into that but i have another comment. My experience on every committee im on us when we did a market in the committee its a simple majority. Not allowing a simple majority amendment process in the committee is saying we will give you some amendments on the floor with a 60 vote threshold isnt the same thing. It doesnt respect an individuals ability to persuade. My colleagues democrat republicans thats why this bill wasnt sent to the committee that put on the floor. So i dontor view that to respod i get he said we should have open amendment on the floor, but depriving people of the ability to offer open amendment in the simple majority can i convince my colleagues in the committee that is already stacking the deck. Im told that the senator from maryland i would get out of his way faster setting so thanke question. Over the weekend i was reflecting on the time the nations [inaudible] we are witnessing the rebirth of the new Civil Rights Movement when it comes to reforming our police departments. Americans no dont know the nams of george boyd, breonna taylor, Freddie Grady and so many others. Th current protests we see throughout the nation and throughout the world are the direct result of an incredible leap in technology. Individual citizens and officers themselves can record interactions between police