Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Ms. CANTWELL. I want to thank the Senator from Connecticut for his tremendous leadership out here tonight and all through the day. I think for Senators, if you have never led a filibuster, up until that point, you probably don't know for sure that you are ready for this task, but a moment occurs in which you know you must act, steel is inserted into your spine, and you come out here and you give it your all.

Before asking a question, I want to thank the Senator from Connecticut and his colleague, the Senator from New Jersey, for showing such steel in making sure America hears our response to the events that have happened not just this past weekend but for so many weekends and so many days and so many incidents. I say to our colleagues that we deserve to have a vote on these two issues.

I know my colleague is impressed that there are other colleagues out here, but we so admire your courage, in the face of such tragedy in your State, to not forget the effort that needs to happen in the United States of America, to let the American people know that policies they would like to see debated and discussed are getting bottled up. That is what tonight is all about. It is all about saying don't bottle up these issues and, yes, if you want to test the fortitude of a human being to see how long they can stand on their feet, we will find out the answer to that.

But the real question is: ``Are you going to let us vote on important public safety issues that the American public wants us to do something about?'' That is what is so ironic about the fact that we can't have these votes. The American people want us to have these votes and are fully supportive.

I thank my colleague who was just here who was a prosecutor herself, so she knows what this is all about. She knows on a day-to-day basis what it is about.

So this issue of voting on whether an individual on the terrorist watch list can purchase firearms--we say to people: If you are on the terrorist watch list, we are not going to let you on an airplane, and you cannot get a gun if you are on that list.

According to a 2015 poll, 77 percent of the American voters supported banning sales of guns to people on the terrorist watch list. So we know that the majority of Americans support us in this effort. Yet we cannot get the support to make that happen here on the Senate floor.

I also want to bring up public safety because I am reading a statistic here that Washington is one of just 14 States where more people die by gunfire than by motor vehicle accidents. We also have a statistic that 61 percent of perpetrators who killed police officers with guns in Washington between 1980 and 2013 were prohibited from possessing guns but were still able to get them.

This issue, for us, is something that we spend a lot of time here debating. There are other colleagues who have led the battle on trying to have background checks and closing the loopholes that exist in current law. I thank them for that. I thank them for their battles and efforts.

I wanted to ask the Senator from Connecticut if he is aware--and I am sure he will be somewhat aware--that this issue being neglected by the U.S. Senate is being taken up by citizens of the United States through every measure and vehicle available to them?

In the face of growing violence in our State, Washingtonians demanded change, and in 2014 voters in our State overwhelmingly passed a ballot initiative to require background checks for all firearm sales, including online sales, sales at gun shows, and sales between private citizens. That is what we passed by initiative in the State of Washington.

Is the Senator from Connecticut aware that States are taking up this effort?

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Ms. CANTWELL. I so appreciate the Senator, and I wanted to ask him because his comments are right in line with the comments that I think are so important for people to understand.

This past March, we got the first hard numbers from the impact of this law that we passed in Washington State. In addition to the nearly 4,000 felons who were caught illegally trying to buy a firearm in Washington through a licensed dealer--another 50 felons were prevented from buying guns from private sellers because of the provisions of the new law. According to data from the FBI, nearly 8,000 private sale background checks have occurred that otherwise would not have without changes in the law.

So the fact that we now have this law in place in our State and are now seeing the results that we are actually stopping felons from getting firearms says to me that these are results that the rest of my colleagues and their States should look at. But we should do U.S. citizens a favor by, as you said, not continuing to have this be done State by State, but do it at the Federal level.

I ask my colleague from Connecticut how aware he is of this movement and how important it is that the American public continue to demand that we deal with this issue.

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Ms. CANTWELL. I would just say to the Senator from Connecticut--and I thank him for his leadership--that we need to come together and consider ways in which to stop gun violence. We need to improve the mental health system, and I know people have talked about that this evening as well. But I want the Senator from Connecticut to know that in the State of Washington we are looking at an additional ballot initiative to prevent gun tragedies involving mental illness. So I think people are going to continue to explore all the ways in which we can make sure that our citizens can become safe, and if it takes that initiative process, I think people are going to see the results. But let's have a vote. Let's at least know where your representative, where your Senator is on these policies that are important.

If you are on a terrorist watch list and you can't get on a plane, you shouldn't be able to get a gun. Let's have a good law like this good law that has been enacted in the State of Washington and background checks that produce results like catching felons and stopping them from having access to guns.

I thank the Senator from Connecticut for answering those questions and, again, for his leadership tonight on the Senate floor.

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