Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, as we pause this week to remember the 10 people who lost their lives and the 13 people who were wounded 1 year ago, we should reflect on what has changed but also on what still needs to be done to stop this epidemic of mass shootings and school shootings, in particular.

Last year I was very proud that Congress authorized nearly $1 billion in school safety funding--legislation that I was a cosponsor of. That is nearly $1 billion that schools can use to improve school safety, including hardening doors so that shooters can't shoot through the school doors anymore, shrinking the number of entrances and exits, installing metal detectors, and hiring armed police officers to keep our kids safe. That was an important first step, but we need to do more.

That is why I am reintroducing this week two important bills. First, I am reintroducing legislation to authorize more funding for school safety and to enable greater targeting of the felons and fugitives who try to buy firearms illegally. If a felon or fugitive tries to purchase a firearm illegally, that felon or fugitive should be prosecuted and they should be put in Federal jail.

In 2013, my first year in the Senate, I introduced legislation with my friend Senator Grassley from Iowa to create a gun crime task force at the Federal Department of Justice to ensure that Federal convictions are in the national database and to direct the Department of Justice to prosecute the felons and fugitives who try to illegally buy guns and to put them in jail before they can take the lives of more innocents. Sadly, cynically, Senate Democrats filibustered that legislation. They prevented it from passing into law by demanding a 60-vote threshold.

In light of the tragedies of Santa Fe, Parkland, and Highlands Ranch High School, just last week, I urge my colleagues to join me in making this commonsense bill law in this Congress. Let's direct law enforcement resources to stop violent criminals before they commit more heinous murders.

I am also reintroducing the bipartisan School Security Enhancement Act with Democratic Senator Doug Jones, which would allow local communities to utilize student support and academic enrichment grants to reinforce school safety infrastructure and technology. Installing metal detectors, bulletproof doors and windows, and establishing an efficient system for communicating important information to law enforcement and to parents are all important steps in improving school safety.

I hope we can join together and pass these bills so that our students are safer, and so we can do more to prevent future mass shootings.

What happened in Santa Fe a year ago was a tragedy. On the night of the shooting, there was a candlelight prayer vigil in the community at a public park in downtown Santa Fe. Even as you saw families grieving and in unspeakable agony, and their hearts breaking, you also saw people coming together. When I was at the vigil that night, as you wept and mourned with students and parents experiencing the ultimate agony, you saw at the same time students and parents in the community leaning on each other, holding each other, holding each other up, praying alongside each other, praying with each other, and giving thanks for the heroism and strength. I think that is the only way a community makes it out of a tragedy like that.

The last year has been an extremely difficult year for the Santa Fe families and the community. That morning is indelibly marked onto that community. At the same time, they have been able to lean on each other, to rely on each other, to support each other, and to lift each other up in prayer.

I want to conclude by saying to the families in Santa Fe: We are with you. We support you. We love you, and we are there for you.

To my colleagues in Congress, we need to unite together to make our schools safer, to prosecute felons and fugitives before they commit acts of murder, and to do everything to stop this horrific mass shooting epidemic. We need to do it now. End the partisan battles. Focus on the bad guys, and stop them before more lives and innocents are taken. ______

By Mr. SCHUMER (for himself, Mr. Durbin, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Leahy, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Carper, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Schatz, Ms. Smith, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Bennet, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Reed, Ms. Warren, Ms. Duckworth, Ms. Rosen, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mr. Kaine, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Booker, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Udall, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Warner, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Sanders, Ms. Harris, Mr. Markey, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Heinrich, and Mr. King):

S. 1445. A bill to provide a coordinated regional response to manage effectively the endemic violence and humanitarian crisis in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

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