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

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCOTT. Mr. President, I rise today for the final time this week. This has been a very emotional time for all of us and I believe a pivotal time for our Nation. For me personally, I believe our brightest days are still ahead of us, and I will tell you why.

I am a kid who grew up in a single-parent household, mired in poverty, disillusioned at times, who nearly flunked out of high school, whose life was changed by a strong, powerful African-American mama and an optimistic, visionary Chick-fil-A operator named John Moniz, who happened to be White.

I think it is incredibly important that while our problems appear in black and white, our solutions are black and white.

My life is a testament to God's love--a mother's love and the love of my mentor. I don't deny that our Nation must have tough, painful conversations--family conversations--but I have experienced what is possible when the family talks, and it is really a cool thing. My life story is a story of second chances--a love story of sorts. It is a dark hour in race relations for America, but I bring you hope--real hope.

In the Deep South, with a provocative racial history, the voters of the First Congressional District of South Carolina--a heavily White district that is the home of the birthplace of the Civil War--elected the grandson of a man who picked cotton. I want to say that one more time. In the heart of the South, the home of the Civil War, a majority White district--these voters elected the grandson of a man who picked cotton over the children of the former U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate Strom Thurmond, and a very popular Governor, Governor Carol Campbell.

I am hopeful because I have experienced the power of a State that has been transformed, the great State of South Carolina. So to my American family, please remain optimistic.

On Monday, I discussed the importance of supporting our law enforcement community. I followed on yesterday by asking all of us to also realize that although the vast majority of our law enforcement officers only seek to protect and to serve, there is still work to be done. There is a lack of trust between the Black community and law enforcement--one that we as an American family must come together and solve. I believe an old saying is a vital part of finding solutions: The only way to know where you are going is to know where you have been.

As I mentioned earlier, part of the rich and sometimes provocative history of America is to point in one of two directions. One is to realize that over the past 240 years we have had our challenges. Our Nation has nearly been pulled apart. But out of the crisis of our past has come the hope for our future. In a relatively short amount of time, we have made, in my estimation, remarkable progress as a nation. And while I will talk about a few of the policies I believe will help us move forward, as well as some things that are more about simply getting us to interact together--to sit down and break bread--the one thing our collective history has taught us is that we must not lose hope.

Yes, there is unresolved pain, suffering, and misery, but this is the greatest Nation on Earth, and we are the greatest Nation on Earth for a reason. Flawed men at our foundation opted to sacrifice themselves on behalf of other flawed men, and together we have done something unique in the history of our planet; that is, simply to create a country that is based on the premise that all men are created equal and that our path forward will be blazed together.

As the Book of Joshua says, we have to recognize our memorial stones so that we have a chance to move forward.

So there is obviously no single solution here. I hope to share a few today, some of which I have talked about before, some of which have broad support in Congress, and some that have nothing to do with the Federal Government. Believe it or not, the government is not the answer to what ails us. The Federal Government can help in places, but the good news is that 300 million Americans, we as a nation, as a family, we are the solution.

The first section of solutions sits in the realm of law enforcement and the Justice Department. Over the past few years, I have talked to a wide variety of officials from across the law enforcement arena, as well as groups like the Urban League and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and many other groups. One solution that seems to be acceptable and almost exciting to so many folks is the notion of body cameras. So I have introduced my Safer Officers and Safer Citizens Act, which provides more resources for police departments to obtain body cameras, as well as to help pay for some of the startup costs for storage units and other requirements.

While we know body cameras cannot be the panacea, we also know this: If an officer is wearing one, we have a much better chance of understanding the situation from all sides. This is why so many law enforcement officers and agencies support using them. It is why we are seeing cities from Los Angeles to New York outfitting their officers with more and more body cameras.

I have also introduced the Walter Scott Notification Act, along with my good friend Senator Grassley. Our system for tracking police shootings is not working for our Nation. It is a patchwork system not built for the 21st century. So, long story short, this bill changes that. Hopefully it fixes the problems. We must know where we are to know where we must go.

I am also glad to see my colleagues in the House, including my very good friend Congressman Trey Gowdy, starting a bipartisan working group to take a hard look at the relationship between the Black community and the law enforcement community. I am very hopeful that a similar group will start in the Senate.

My final point on the Federal level is that I have had the pleasure of working with a group of colleagues--with John Cornyn and many others--working on this notion of criminal justice reform. I am very hopeful that work will continue to move forward and produce real fruit.

Much of this work that needs to be done won't be done on the Federal level if it is done by the government; it will done by the local government and the State government.

I have talked to so many in the law enforcement community who talk about the need for more training--specifically, deescalation training, diversity training--and more efforts to get police officers out of their cars and into communities so that they form positive, healthy relationships so that when they are walking down the street, the folks know them. I spoke earlier with Senator Lankford, who talked about this notion of getting officers embedded in communities so that the officers know the very people they are talking to. This seems like common sense, and it seems like the right direction. It is a two-way street.

I think the Dallas police chief said it very well. He made the point better than I ever could. He said: If you have issues with policing in your neighborhood, well, we are hiring. That is very important. The Dallas Police Department, along with police departments all across this country, are hiring. He said: We will train you up, and we will put you back into your community.

These are the sorts of real-world solutions and actions that build trust in communities.

The second set of issues we have to tackle--and this is no surprise to anyone who has heard me over the last couple of years--focuses on one specific word. The word is ``opportunity.'' Too many communities in our Nation feel like they have been left behind, like no one cares, so why should they care? As someone, as I said earlier, who grew up in a single-parent household, I can tell you how strong that sensation to quit becomes, how quickly it grows. When you feel the way I felt in the past, frustration rises and you start seeing the world differently. You don't trust people who aren't from your neighborhood. That is a dangerous recipe.

How do we tackle this problem? The answer, from my estimation, is kind of simple: education, jobs, and investment--the cornerstones of my opportunity agenda.

On the jobs front, I have worked across the aisle with Senators like Cory Booker to introduce the LEAP Act, which allows for a very successful South Carolina apprenticeship program to become a national model so that kids can earn and learn at the exact same time. We know not everyone wants to or can afford to go to college, but that doesn't mean they should not be able to find opportunities to provide for their families. By incentivizing apprenticeship programs, we can help folks see their potential, experience their potential, and live fulfilling and profitable lives.

I have also introduced the Investing in Opportunity Act, which seeks to create a path for private sector dollars-- not government dollars but private sector dollars--to be invested in distressed communities. We have 50 million Americans living in distressed communities and over $2 trillion of unrealized capital gains just sitting there. We should incent those dollars to be invested in those communities.

Finally, education. My good friend Trey Gowdy said that education is the closest thing to magic in America. I think he is right. You can look at our incarceration rates, our unemployment rates, our high school dropout rates, our lifetime average incomes, and they all point to one specific area: educational achievement. Trust me, I am the guy who just told you I almost failed out of high school. I know this firsthand. For me, the answer is very clear: Give parents a chance to find the best school for their children, and they will--period.

Finally, solutions on a personal level. Again I turn to Dallas. As I was watching one of the surgeons at Parkland Hospital, he was talking about his feelings toward law enforcement. He was saying that he was struggling the night after the shooting. He had worked all night trying to save the lives of these officers, and he was tossing and turning, torn up on the inside that he could not save their lives. I can't imagine how he felt. I can't--Dr. Barrasso, a surgeon--I can't imagine how he felt, trying to save the lives of men and women who were willing to give their lives for others. I can't imagine it. He is an African- American man. As he woke up and prepared for the next day, he struggled. He struggled with his personal relationship and his personal concerns with law enforcement.

What is he doing? I think this is instructive for all of us. He said he is making sure his daughter sees him buying lunch for officers and sees them interacting in a friendly way because he doesn't want to pass on to his daughter any sense of fear of law enforcement, but respect, appreciation, and affection for the men and women who wear the uniform.

I have seen it in my hometown of North Charleston, SC. It is an amazing experience. On Christmas morning, dozens of officers with dozens of volunteers show up at city hall, and at 6 o'clock in the morning, these guys and gals go door-to-door in the poorest neighborhoods in North Charleston. I have been there with them once or twice. They knock at the door, and they look into the eyes of a little girl or a little boy who is expecting nothing for Christmas, and they hand that child a toy.

There are simple ways to bridge the divide between the African- American community and other poor communities and law enforcement. There are powerful ways, simple ways, to make a difference. As I have said a couple of times, the government cannot make us get along. We have seen it tried before. It simply cannot force you and me to take the leap of faith to try to trust again.

The notion of America is really built on the foundation of faith-- faith in each other, faith in a higher calling. If we are to mend the relationships in our family, we will have to do so by looking into each other's eyes, walking in each other's shoes, and listening--not waiting to talk, but listening--listening, not only with your head, but listening with your heart so that you hear and feel the pain and the challenges of others.

This is a simple commandment from God's Word, Matthew 22:39, to love your neighbor as yourself. This is not simply a commandment, however. This requires action. You have to do something.

Trey Gowdy, a Congressman from South Carolina, and I are going to bring pastors and law enforcement officials together in South Carolina so that we can have an honest, sometimes painful conversation about how to move forward together.

In Charleston County I had a chance to speak with Sheriff Al Cannon, a longtime sheriff of Charleston. He simply said that both sides have to come together because this is not a one-sided issue.

Senator Lankford and I are discussing a new idea called Solution Sunday, a wonderful idea that Senator Lankford shared with me earlier this week, and we will talk about that more in the coming weeks, but the premise of the idea is you have to do more than just go to church together. We as a nation aren't even doing that very well. But we have to eat together and do projects together. So we will hear more about the exciting idea of Solution Sunday in the upcoming weeks.

I will continue to reach out to my colleagues and my friends who may not look like me, who may have a different philosophy than I do, so I can understand their hopes, their dreams, and their frustrations because listening is so important. As we look around our Nation, it appears to me that we haven't done nearly enough listening to each other.

In closing, I hope we all remember that we have survived turbulent times before: the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War II, 1968, and in South Carolina, 2015. I still marvel at how our State responded to the shootings at Mother Emanuel--the power of forgiveness, the power of love conquering hate.

Earlier this year, I lost my grandfather. I haven't really talked about it publicly. He was 94 years old and meant so much to me. This was a man born in Salley, SC, in 1921. I can only imagine what he had seen in South Carolina. I can only imagine the life, the challenges, the struggles of an African-American male in the Deep South in 1921, 1931, and the 1940s. He didn't finish elementary school. He had to pick cotton. He never learned to read. He eventually got a job at the Port of Charleston--a job that, while it didn't give us much in the way of tangible resources, provided an immeasurable lifeline for our family.

This is a story that has been repeated generation after generation in this country. I have heard the story from a very different frame from my good friend Marco Rubio. It is a story of success. It is a story of significance. It is a story of America.

My grandfather's grandson, yours truly, is a U.S. Senator. My brother, another grandson, rose to the rank of command sergeant major in the U.S. Army. My nephew, his great grandson, has graduated from Georgia Tech, Duke University, and now is on his way to Emory for medical school. That is the beauty of America--from cotton to Congress in one lifetime.

We are a beautiful Nation. We are an amazing family. Families fight sometimes. That is OK. We must remember that we are one single family. We can all get to where we are going, we must get to where we are going, and we will get there together.

I want one more time to slow down, pause, and remember the sacrifices made by five Dallas police officers, the tragedies in Baton Rouge and Minnesota.

We have been through so much, but a bright future is still there for our taking. Let's make sure we grab it together.

Let me just say thank you to my staff, who worked very hard all week long to make sure we were prepared for these presentations, and I want to specifically thank my communications director Sean Smith, who helped put most of these words together, helped us work through the emotions, the challenges, and how to frame the conversation that we believe America must have. As my communications director, who happens to be a White guy, and my chief of staff who happens to be an African-American female--as we worked together, it reminded me that in the midst of our struggles, our challenges, and our difficulties, I depend on a rainbow coalition, a patchwork quilt, to present my thoughts, my heart to America.

We are America. We are Americans. God has blessed the United States of America.

Thank you.

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