Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2017--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCOTT. Madam President, I believe our Nation is in desperate need of a family conversation. The American family as a whole needs to sit down, come to the same table, and talk with our relatives. That means each of us talking to each other about the challenges we have seen in our Nation over all of last week--a challenging week in America's history, without any question; a challenging time period for Americans all over this country, without any question; protests, riots; challenges we haven't seen in a very long time.

We stand here today at a crossroads. Our Nation is experiencing turmoil we haven't seen in generations--decades since we have seen this type of turmoil all around the country. My heart breaks for all of us.

This week on this floor, I will give a series of speeches in hopes of illuminating some of the issues before us, as well as what I believe are essential steps toward closing both the wounds newly opened and others that have actually never healed. In other words, there are wounds that have existed for more than a generation, and it is time for the American family to work together to heal some of these wounds.

Last Friday, deep in the heart of Texas, we saw both the best and the worst of humanity. Only in America would you see police officers alongside protesters who were protesting police brutality. If you take a step back and picture it for just a moment, here is a scene of police officers protecting protesters who are protesting police brutality. In this picture, we don't see tension or animosity; we see smiles. We see police officers working, taking pictures, and making sure that everyone was having the appropriate time and, for some, even an enjoyable experience with law enforcement.

But then the shots rang out. Police turned very quickly to protect those protesters, and protesters helped police identify where the shots were coming from. Somehow at the exact same time, Dallas came together and at the exact time was torn apart. In what appears to be one man's warped mind, retribution became his answer to frustration, and his hate left five police officers dead and seven other officers wounded. We continue to mourn for them and their families today. We must not--we must not--become a society where revenge is the rule of the day.

Our Nation is dependent on the rule of law, and to enforce the law, we need honest, hardworking men and women to take up the shield. For the overwhelming majority of cops, it is a calling. It is not a job. It is in the fashion of Romans 13--a chapter that speaks very clearly about the fact that government officials wearing a sword can be ministers; in other words, sharing love and affection and appreciation for those they guard and having the ability to provide punishment when necessary. We are talking about men and women who work for a very low wage all over the country and who see their job as a calling. So many of them--the vast majority--do it so well.

Law enforcement officers simply want to do two things: protect and serve. We cannot allow the actions of a few to overwhelm the good of the majority. To illustrate this, I want to share a few stories so we can put in frame, put in focus the sacrifice and the commitment that so many officers exhibit every single day throughout our Nation.

My first story is a story of a young lady named Jillian Smith, a young African-American female police officer from just west of Dallas in Arlington, TX. In December 2010, Officer Smith responded to a domestic violence situation. She arrived and met a beautiful 11-year- old girl and her mother, both fearful.

I want to stop for a moment and make sure we get the frame.

Here comes an officer, Officer Smith, who shows up to make sure the folks who called were safe. The people who called were an 11-year-old girl and her mother. They were fearful the mother's boyfriend would show up and do something dangerous. And dangerous--he did do something incredibly brutal.

Officer Smith, hearing gunfire, in an instant jumped on top of the body of the 11-year-old. As the bullets rang out, she kept herself on top of that 11-year-old girl. The girlfriend's boyfriend would end up killing the mother and then killing himself. Before he did so, he killed Officer Smith. Without a second thought, Officer Smith did what so many law enforcement officers do instinctively--protect those who are exposed. Officer Jillian Smith, a true American hero, gave her life to protect the life of an 11-year-old girl she had never met before knocking on that door.

This story and other stories aren't unusual. They want to serve and protect. We saw this same heroism last Friday evening, as told by Shetamia Taylor. Miss Taylor was at the protest. She was there exercising her first constitutional right. Then the sniper started shooting.

Miss Taylor had gone there with her four sons. She, for the lack of a better word, freaked out. Bullets were flying. She ran to cover her one son. According to her account of the situation, before she knew it, there was a cop who was covering her and her son. The next thing you knew, another cop was at her feet and another cop toward her head. In the midst of a sniper shooting at cops, she found herself surrounded, covered by police officers who were just doing their job, risking their lives for this mother and her son.

What a picture: the best of America, very clear; the sniper, the worst of America, is just as clear.

Miss Taylor made a very good point when discussing what happened. Here is her quote. She said: ``These are the people you call when you're in a situation. . . . What are we gonna do if they stop policing?''

Let me ask the question that Miss Taylor asked one more time. What are we going to do if they stop policing? Who are you going to call?

These are the stories that should give us faith in law enforcement. While we certainly have issues that demand solutions--and I, too, have had some issues with law enforcement that I am going to share in my next speech on Wednesday. I will be giving three speeches. This is the first one. In the next one, I will talk about some of the issues that so many folks have experienced. I want to spend time on this, but this is a moment in time when we should stop the camera, create a frame. Let's focus on the fact that our law enforcement officers are true American heroes, period.

When you are looking for a hero, sometimes you look for athletes; maybe that is not the best place. You look for entertainers; maybe that is not the best place. You look at Congress--9 percent approval rating; that is probably not the right place. But our men and women who put on a law enforcement uniform--these folks are real American heroes.

In my State of South Carolina, officers like Greg Alia, who gave his life last year in Columbia, SC; officers like Allen Jacobs, who gave his life in Greenville, SC; and in Charleston, Joe Matuskovic, who was killed by a man shooting through a door--body slumps over, and my mentor, whom I have spoken about for so long, John Moniz's son--I call him a brother from another mother--was the first deputy on the scene and dragged the lifeless body of his friend, his colleague, from that door, trying to get that body completely out of harm's way.

To me, as I said a few seconds ago, Brian Moniz, sheriff's deputies, and police officers are our heroes, and we should focus on that for a moment. We must come together. We must find solutions. We must get to a point where the American family--our family--has a real conversation about the issues that divide us, the differences of our experiences, yet remain a single family with a single mission and make sure that every part of the American family feels valued.

I am starting tonight with our law enforcement, the part of the family we depend on, as Miss Taylor so perfectly stated. If we do have this necessary, painful conversation as an American family, we can say with a new freshness, ``God bless America.'' We can say with new focus to our American heroes, ``God bless our law enforcement community.''

I don't expect to give such a speech without having some folks respond positively and some even negatively. But this night, this day, knowing that tomorrow in Texas our current President, our former President, and a number of folks throughout the State of Texas will be together in a part of our family territory, celebrating the sacrifices, mourning the loss, but doing something that needs to be done. It is simply this: not coming as a Democrat, not coming as a Republican, not coming as a Black American, not coming as a White American, not coming as a Hispanic American, but coming to a family gathering for family funerals--plural--which hopefully will start a family conversation that I will look forward to continuing on Wednesday.

Madam President, I thank you.

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