Arguments, a lot of discussion and im saying to myself if i am somebody watching this from afar, from oklahoma or from West Virginia or vermont, im thinking to myself what is all this talk about 60 votes and culture and all this . They are not focus on that. All they know isd. We failed. This failed. And this was an opportunity that we should have grasped. We had a chance to discuss the need for Police Reform and to look at the very serious issues of racial inequalities. I am exceedingly exceedingly disappointed. I thought yesterday, actually monday, monday m i thought good, signals or were going to get on this bill, have healthy debate with the memories nimitz, in fe American People giving a different opinion will vote up and that and will actually have product here thats actually goingng to help. Going to help. But it derailed. It derailed t badly, and im vey disappointed by that. I think anybody in this country should be. Those who are protesting, those who are deeply what the scene. They dont care about cloture and 60 votes and who gets the political point and whos going to be able to drag this to the election. A care about getting something done on a deeply, deeply emotional issue. So we know that every american is entitled to equal protection under the law. Wewe also know theres a lot of Good Police Officer in this country. Many, the vast majority. And its clear though that we have a real need to improve our Law Enforcement so that every american can have the confidence that officers are there to serve them equally. We should provide resources to train police on not just the escalation but use force, intervention. All of the issues that we see willied came forward in the horrifying death of george floyd. We should provide more body cameras. Wouldnt have known about george floyd have not been a camera. I dont listen to camera on the officer. It was a bystander camera but cameras can be so incredibly useful to protect the rights of the people that are confronted and to protect the rights of police. So we need to make sure that those not only are provided and there for t our local Law Enforcement but they are turned on. We saw in louisville it were not turned on. We should make sure that bad Police Officers cant get past from department to department and theci disciplinary actions n the records, employment records are there kept either locally or the plosive bills has kept at the state or the president said kept at the federal. Anyway, in any event captures the transparency we need and we should eliminate the use of the chokehold. By officers unless the officer is in a situation where he cant get out of it but quite frankly i am for banning them in any circumstance. Those statements are really not controversial and most americans really agree with d them. And how do we know that . Well, because both the bill introduced by senator scott and cosponsored by 47 republican senators, and the bill introduced by senator booker and supported by Many Democrats included these provisions in each one of theirte bills. Now we have nonpartisan Congressional Resource Service we rely on for nonpartisan advice. The quotes from the report in comparing i both bills quote, bh bills seek to establish best practices for Law Enforcement officers and train officers in areas on the use of force and racial bias. Both bills. Both bills would seek to increase a the use of body cames one by state and local Law Enforcement. Both bills. Both bills containtapr provisios designed to enhance transparency misconduct by Law Enforcement officers. Both bills. Both bills include provisions designed to limit the use of chokehold by federal, state and local Law Enforcement though the two statutes do differ in the breadth and approach. What happens when we differ in the house . We go to comfort him and work out our differences. We are not having a chance today. Given these areas of common grantee should be easy for us to come together and, to pass that motion to begin the debate on the senate floor. Thats what were supposed to do. There are major differences, a few major differences in the bill, and this is where i think the American People would have really tuned in to debate. We know theres a difference on qualified immunity. Lets have a debate. Lets have a debate. Had we moved forward i think we couldve ended up with a bipartisan bill that could pass both house and the senate and signed into law. But as we are now, you know we have got as senator scott said in a speech be said about an hour ago . Nothing. With nothing. We have people on the streets of every town in america begging us to do something positive, to help the situation. And today, crickets, nothing because we couldnt get cooperation. It wouldve made significant progress or i heard senator scott safe andar it did realize this until he heard them say on the the senate floor, 20 minutes and the managers amendment. He offered conversation with the other side and again no, nothing. We dont want that. We couldve shown the American People, we dont have the best record on showing the American People that we can Work Together and get things done but what we couldve shown the net today. We couldve shown the mad for the rest of the week if we debate these issues. I canav guarantee you on some of the sticky issues weha would affect great agreement. Maybe we all wouldnt have agreed on it. Some of funds from each parts of our party and each parts of our country wouldve agreed and formulated better, smarter, more efficient legislation. We could have demonstrated that we are united in support of the civil rights of all americans, supportive come in support of the men and women in Law Enforcement and instead partisanship was allowed to carry the day. It should be clear because i think it should be for the American People, this motion that the of the sites as we dont have a seat at the table with a provided the world stage for their seat at the table to debate this issue. You know, we need 60 votes to continue and hear him talking about the technicalities of how to get it done but the wouldve been an enormous amendment process that probably wouldve been quite lengthy and very, very i think beneficial. So i am really disappointed. Im disappointed to tell the American People that we are listening to you, but you know, maybe its not in her own political benefit to cooperate to move forward. So lets just draw it out as senator lankford said. So i think it is important to point out in the process, if we had an amendment debate, if we had a debate on the senate floor, if we cultivate it and came up with a final product, it still is in the margin for the other side to say no, cant do it, not enough, cant go there. Okay, at least we tried. Now, hes got nothing. So as we move forward, i was on several radio industry and people want to know whats next. I dont t know whats next. Weve got to do better than this. Weve got to do better on what we see happening across the country and listening to the cries when i heard senator scotts speech when he talks to the communities that are most vulnerable that have the most difficultys in all the struggles of the flies, we owe it to them to have this debate on the floor greatest deliberative body, the united statese senate. It didnt matter enough that we gave you that we gave each other 20 amendments, didnt matter enough that we had a debate on the senate floor. Didnt matter to have the experts tell us whats the best. Didnt matter enough. Im hoping as time goes by that it did matter because this issue is not going away and our passion to solve it as a collective body shouldnt go away. And im committed to seeing that it doesnt go away. Thank you. Mr. President. Senator from vermont. Mr. President , this afternoon weve heard a lot of rhetoric. Id like to now deal with reality. So often happens, the reality is different than the rhetoric. Since i last spoke on the senate floor in the wake of George Floyds murder, the American Peoples calls for justice and accountability have not diminished. Fortunately theyve grown stronger and rightfully so. Since then, our nations had to confront a needless killing of an africanamerican man when an atlanta Police Officer shot Rayshard Brooks twice in the back when he was fleeing from office officers. Now, i know from my own experience in Law Enforcement that nobody can dispute that Police Officers have incredibly challenging jobs. No one will dispute that theyre faced with difficult, splitsecond decisions that impact life and death. But that difficulty does not excuse the fact that something is deeply wrong in our country. It does not dispute the fact that people of color have disproportionately suffered from police misconduct. Stopped by police, arrested by police and are the victims of Excessive Force at the hands of police. Now, confronted with the killing of george floyd, millions of americans are demanding we do better as a nation. Theyre recognizing the longstanding societal prejudices and biases and created a Law Enforcement culture and broader criminal Justice System that perpetuates these prejudices and these biases. And what are the American People demanding, that we roll up our sleeves and do the hard work, those charged with preserving the law are also subject to it. That no person is above the law. And for millions of americans, the time is act is now. But i think the senate is acting as though its not up to the task. Well, on thursday, the house is expected to pass a comprehensive legislation to reform policing and theyre going to do that with republicans and democrats voting for it. What the senate does, a patch work of half measures that will do little more than place a handful of bandaids on deep generations old wounds. Now, i dont know doubt at all that the legislation drafted by senator scott is a good faith attempt to find concensus within the republican conference on how to reform policy, how to reform policing. But by any reasonable measure, the bill the republicans have put forward fails to reform policing on many of the pressing issues, addressing true racial inequalities or disparities or discrimination. The republican bill defers either by doing nothing at all or leaving it to a future somewhere commission to study it. The republican bill purports to create a new Grant Program to fund and mandate the use of body worn cameras, which had been instrumental in holding both the police and suspects accountable. Mr. President , maybe everybody failed to notice, but congress created that program five years ago, and our precipitations committee in a bipartisan fashion has been funding it every year since, all five years. This is not something new. The republican bill would create incentives to change behaviors, but the legislation introduced by senators booker and harris would actually change those behaviors. They dont say here, please do it. They say here you have to do it. They do it by banning choke holds. They ban noknock warrants. And unlike the Booker Harris bill, the republican bill would not address qualified immunity, which allows officers to evade accountability, even when a court finds that they violated constitutional rights. Can you imagine, mr. President , anybody else in this country, they violate someones constitutional rights, that they take a protected group. You cant do anything about it. Byebye now, see ya. The republican bill does nothing to address racial profiling. It does nothing to ensure the deadly force only be used as a last resort, not as a first resort. Especially not against somebody who is running away and gets shot in the back, given a death penalty. It also does nothing to say theres federal oversight with a Law Enforcement agency that violates the systems civil liberties. Its wellknown that the Trump Administration has effectively abandoned pattern or practice investigations and consent decrees, with positive change within some of our troubled departments. Thats why the bookerharris bill strengthened these bills at the federal and state level. And in return, the republican bill provides a talking point. The bookerharris bill provides real accountability and real transparency. But sadly, i think disturbingly the fact that the majority leader will not even allow the senate to debate the bookerharris bill reveals hes interested in neither. Now, for a moment last week it appeared some republicans were serious about finding bipartisan compromise during a Judiciary Committee hearing on policing reform chairman graham said hed like the committee to Work Together to find solutions. To sit down and see if we can reconcile the policing reform packages and come up with something in common. A number of my republican colleagues on the Judiciary Committee even expressed an openness to reevaluate in qualified immunity to ensure that theres a sense of accountability within police departments. I agree that these are difficult issues. Certainly based on my experience under both republican and democrat majorities, i know the Judiciary Committee is capable of handling these difficult issues. I know because weve done it before in tough issues. Let me give you an example. Seven years ago, a Bipartisan Group of senators, republicans and democrats across the political spectrum, put together a thoughtful, bipartisan bill to reform our immigration system. But the bill wasnt put here on the senate floor with a take it or leave it. The chairman held three hearings on the bill and then we have five days of markups, some going late in the night. We considered 212 amendments. 141 of which were adopted, including 50 amendments offered by republicans and voted on by both democrats and republicans. The process was fair, full and deliberate and what happened when it came to the senate floor . 68 senators of both parties across the political spectrum supported the legislation and voted for it. Now, if we could replicate that process for policing reform today, go to the committee. Have the debate. Bring up the amendment. Have the hearing. Vote on something and bring it here onto the floor with that kind of strong support. I suspect even more senators, democrats and republicans alike, would support it. Senator mcconnell is skipping all of that. Hes not allowing the Judiciary Committee to do its work. Hes not attempting to build bipartisan compromise. Hes instead forcing the senate to take up a wholly inadequate partisan bill or do nothing at all. Here, take vote for the deeply flawed bill or you get nothing. Thats not being the conscience of the nation and why i and many others came to the senate and thats not how the senate got things down and every senator and democrat and republican alike knows that so i suggest to the leader if hes serious about tackling Racial Injustice and policing reform, there is had a blueprint to fall and this is not it. I urge the majority leader to reverse course. If hes unwilling to bring meaningful legislation to the floor to address these issues today, well then all of these of these Judiciary Committee to put in the hard work necessary to build bipartisan concensus, im sure could be done within a couple of weeks of actual hearings and votes in our committee. But instead the leader is insisting on a process thats designed to fail. In doing so, the senate fails. The senate fails george floyd. It fails breonna taylor. It fails countless others who have been victims of brutality or discrimination by applied Justice System. But in doing so, the senate also fails the American People. Help us down the path we take. I voted not to go forward on the process, hoping we might have a real bipartisan process. I believe that the senate should be the conscience of the nation. Lets go to committee. Lets have republicans and democrats vote for or against the amendment to bring a bill to the floor. Stop this take it or leave it step to the republican leader. Lets have a bill that both republicans and democrats have worked on and then bring it up, vote up or down, vote up or down on amendments, and give the American People something they can be proud of and finally, finally, something that the senate can be proud of. Another senator seeking recognition so i suggestive the absence of a kwor rom. Quorum. And mr. President , i look at the bill, this is a moral moment, how our nation will respond in the moral moment. The Police Officer, quote, shames us before the world, im quoting an naacp official who i sa