America's Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2015

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, this week the Senate is continuing its consideration of the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration and bringing important improvements in terms of aviation infrastructure and public safety. I am glad the Senate voted-- notwithstanding the impression I think people get from the outside that all we do is bicker and we don't actually solve any problems. I am glad the Senate has worked in a bipartisan way to move this legislation forward. We have a lot of heavy lifting left to do on this legislation this week, and none of these issues is easy, but it is important we do everything we can to demonstrate to the American people that our interests are their interests in moving bipartisan solutions forward for their benefit. National Crime Victims' Rights Week

Mr. President, I wish to just take a moment and point out that this week is also a very important week because it is National Crime Victims' Rights Week.

Too often crime victims in our country aren't treated with the fairness and respect they deserve. So often it seems as though we focus our attention on those who commit the crime and not nearly enough on those who are victims of crime they had no part in instigating but perhaps happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. When we don't show the proper respect for victims of crime, it can lead to distrust in our communities between law enforcement and the public, and it can make our country a more dangerous place.

The fact is, our law enforcement professionals work best with community cooperation. Frequently, the community can be the eyes and the ears for law enforcement and help give them information they need in order to prevent crime from occurring in the first place or to make a show of force to in fact deter the commission of a crime.

When I was Texas attorney general, I had the privilege of overseeing our State's Crime Victims' Compensation Fund. This is an idea which said we ought to take the fines and the penalties from people who commit crimes and then use those funds to make grants to the victims of crime and the people who attempt to help them heal and recover from the consequences. Time and time again, I saw that when we don't support the victims of crime, they and their families aren't the only ones who suffer. It can also impede law enforcement efforts when they feel this disjuncture or disconnection between the victims and the law enforcement professionals. So it is important for many reasons--out of basic fairness and compassion but also in the interests of law enforcement, generally, to make sure we do everything we can to keep law enforcement and the victims of crime on the same page and the communities in which they reside.

We need to continually look for ways to improve our support for crime victims. One way we can do this is by continuing assistance to State and local governments in a variety of ways. We recently had a hearing on the intersection of mental illness and law enforcement. Unfortunately, in our society today--because of the deinstitutionalization of people with mental illness, with no safety net to take its place--many people who suffer from mental illness are residing in our jails, filling our emergency rooms, or simply living on our streets. So we need to redirect more than just the 1 percent of funds currently directed by the Federal Government to State and local law enforcement for support and training. We need to redirect more of that in a targeted fashion to deal with this crisis in mental illness.

Here is an anecdote. Recently, I had the chance to meet with some members of the Major County Sheriffs' Association. The sheriff of Bexar County, TX, a friend of mine, said: How would you like to meet the largest mental health provider in the United States? I said: Well, sure. Who is that? She said: Meet the sheriff of Los Angeles County.

This made a deep impression on me, and it tells me we still have a lot to do.

Another example of where the Federal Government can play an appropriate support role for local and State law enforcement--and I am not suggesting the Federal Government take over State and local law enforcement, far from it. Rather, the Federal Government should recognize and support the important role that local and State law enforcement play and provide that support, where possible, here at the Federal level.

Nowhere else have I found that more important recently than our efforts to try to audit and test the massive nationwide rape kit backlog. It has been estimated there are 400,000 rape kits collected from the forensic evidence from sexual assaults that remain untested. We know these rape kits contain vital DNA evidence that can put criminals behind bars, exonerate the falsely accused, and help detect those who commit crimes serially--not just once but over and over and over again until they are ultimately caught. As we know, many communities at the local level simply do not have the resources or expertise to test these rape kits in a timely fashion, so that is an area where we can help. That means that while evidence is collecting dust on a shelf for years, criminals will remain loose--unless we continue to act--and make it impossible for the victims of these crimes to find closure. I will give just one example.

Last year Houston had a backlog of thousands of rape kits going back into the 1980s. Fortunately, due to resources provided by the Federal Government under the Debbie Smith Act, and with the determination of the local leadership, Mayor Annise Parker, the city of Houston, began to work with the State of Texas and the Federal Government to eliminate Houston's rape kit backlog. So far they have tested thousands of rape kits, resulting in 850 CODIS matches. That is the DNA check system run by the FBI, where when people have been arrested for offenses in the past, their DNA information is recorded in this data base and then can be matched against that collected in a rape kit or other forensic evidence. So just as a result of the city of Houston undertaking this massive effort--again, with the cooperation of the State and Federal Government--to eliminate its rape kit backlog, they have gotten 850 hits in the CODIS system. In other words, by testing the evidence they already had, Houston officials have been able to identify hundreds of people who are perpetrators of crime--because the DNA evidence does not lie--and to place them at the scene of a crime. Again, as we find out, sadly, people who commit sexual assaults frequently don't do it just once in their life. Many of them do it serially or until they get caught, looking for victims of opportunity--sometimes even children. It is terrible.

Fortunately, with the tools and resources provided by the Debbie Smith Act and something called the SAFER Act, Houston will complete the testing of all backlogged rape kits this year. This is important because in the past, testing of these rape kits was viewed as mainly a way of just confirming the identity of the assailant using DNA evidence, but frequently the identity of the assailant is not an issue in these cases, and it is expensive to test rape kits. Frequently, the assailant is known and the question is one of consent or nonconsent. What we have found is by testing more rape kits--even where the issue of identity is not in question--we can literally tie these defendants in criminal cases to other sexual assaults in a way that is a pretty powerful and pretty revolutionary way.

I am proud of the work Houston and the State of Texas are doing, working with the Federal Government, to end the rape kit backlog, but it is going to take a lot more work from us on an ongoing and long-term basis because, first, one of the things we need to do, which Congress has already required, is an audit to make sure we know where all of these rape kits are--whether they are sitting in an evidence locker or whether they are still sitting in a police station in an investigation locker. We need to make sure there is an audit done so we can get our arms around the size and scope of the problem. Then we need to redirect more of the resources the Federal Government has already appropriated money for under the Debbie Smith Act to actually test these rape kits. This is very important because we need the survivors of sexual assault to know we continue to stand with them in their fight.

Thank goodness for brave women such as Debbie Smith and so many others whom I have met along the way who I think demonstrate not only their own courage but also give other people courage to stand up for their own rights when they are, through no fault of their own, victims of sexual assault.

The Crime Victims' Rights Week is more than just about this crime of sexual assault. It is about respect for all victims of crime. That is why I am proud to be working with the senior Senator from Vermont, Mr. Leahy, and Congressman Ted Poe of Houston, TX, on the Justice for All Reauthorization Act. This is comprehensive legislation to increase rights and protections for crime victims across the country. It will reauthorize the landmark Justice for All Act signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2004.

As part of the reauthorization, it will also increase the collection of compensation and restitution for crime victims, it will protect the housing rights of domestic violence victims, and it will strengthen the forensic sciences to swiftly put criminals behind bars and to improve the integrity of the forensic testing.

Frequently, we know that both the expertise and the equipment used by local governments and law enforcement are sometimes pretty spotty. In order to maintain the integrity of this important and powerful type of evidence, it is very importants we provide some guidance--perhaps best practices--for forensic sciences. We have the ability to do that because of the resources of the Federal Government; again, not to commander or mandate but basically to help local and State governments improve their forensic sciences and their testing.

This legislation will also improve access to legal and health care resources for all victims and will ensure that we are efficiently providing direct services for crime victims on a national basis. This legislation is supported by more than 130 different law enforcement and victim advocacy organizations nationwide, including the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network--the so-called RAINN organization--the National District Attorneys Association, the National Center for Victims of Crime, the International Union of Police Organizations, the National Network to End Domestic Violence, and the National Organization for Women. It is a pretty broad spectrum of organizations along the political or ideological spectrum, and they are all unified in supporting this important bill.

This Chamber has done what it takes to help victims in the past, and we should continue to build on the legacy of legislation like the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, a law that is already making a clear difference in the lives of victims across the country.

One of the best moments in this Chamber last year was when we passed the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act by a vote of 99 to 0. It was a rare and welcomed coming together of all Members, from all different parts of the country, all across the ideological spectrum, to enact the most important assistance for victims of human trafficking that we have done in basically 25 years, providing for something as basic as shelter for victims of human trafficking, when many of them had nowhere to live or to turn.

One of the important pieces of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act was something called the HERO Program. This was primarily inserted into the legislation at the request of the Senator from Illinois, Mr. Mark Kirk, a veteran of the U.S. Navy himself.

Just yesterday, the Army Times ran a story on a program that was permanently authorized under the bill known as HERO, which trains veterans to work alongside Federal law enforcement officials to go after child predators--in other words, using some of the expertise the veterans acquired in their training and their service in the military to help victims of child pornography and the predation, unfortunately, that happens too often on the most innocent.

So far, according to this article, the program has already trained about 80 different veterans with plans to train 40 more this year, giving many of these veterans--some of whom have been seriously injured during the course of their military service--a real purpose in life. Indeed, in the Army Times story I mentioned just a moment ago, there are some heartrending, touching stories about how, even for people who suffered very traumatic injuries during their military service, this gives them a new sense of purpose and focus, and it is very, very encouraging.

I had the chance to see the HERO program in action last year in San Antonio, and it is protecting our children and taking criminals off the street. It is pretty clear that when we set our minds to it, we can make a difference in the lives of crime victims. We proved that with the passage of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, and we can do it again.

I encourage all of our colleagues to consider supporting the Justice for All Reauthorization Act. This is a bicameral, bipartisan proposal that would help victims get the support they need and they deserve.

As advocates and survivors across the country use this week to highlight the needs of millions of crime victims, let's also remember that we have a responsibility and an opportunity to do something about it right here in this Chamber.

Mr. President, I don't see anyone interested in recognition, so I suggest the absence of a quorum.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source