Justice in Policing Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery catapulted the issues of racial justice, police violence, and systemic racism to the forefront of this Nation's conscience. These issues are not new. Some are even older than the Nation itself. The anger felt by hundreds of thousands of protestors is about that historical and pervasive injustice. It is rooted in our decades-long failure to reform police departments and the yawning gap between our ideal of equal justice under law and the reality of equal justice for only some.

America is an experiment. The Founding Fathers said that. We know it deep in our bones. An experiment means you can change, and some of the best observers of the difference--I think de Tocqueville was one of these--of America and the difference between us and other countries--we are willing to change.

I am touched and moved--I was with the demonstrators on Saturday in New York, in Brooklyn--by how many people were there--great diversity-- and how many were young and idealistic and doing things for just the right reasons--not selfish reasons but for the betterment of the country, to make us a more perfect union.

We must seize this moment. We cannot let it pass. This isn't about simply renewing a national dialogue, although dialogue is always important. It is about action. It is about making real and meaningful progress. And the way to do that is with comprehensive police reform legislation in Congress.

House and Senate Democrats have already drafted legislation that would ban the use of choke holds and other tactics that have taken the lives of Black Americans like George Floyd and Eric Garner; that would also ban the use of no-knock warrants in drug cases, which is one of the reasons for the death of Breonna Taylor; that would limit the transfer of military equipment to police departments; and, crucially, that would make it easier to hold police accountable for misconduct, as well as institute several reforms to prevent that misconduct in the first place.

The moment does not call for cherry-picking one or two things to do; it calls for bold, broad change--whole-scale reform, not piecemeal reform. I know the inclination of some of my Senate colleagues would be to cherry-pick a few small improvements and say the job is done. It will not be. We need to start--start--with the Justice in Policing Act, a strong, comprehensive bill that people, particularly Senators Booker and Harris, the CBC, spent a lot of time with experts who have studied this issue for many, many months and years.

For too long, when major issues wash over the country, the waves of change and progress crash against the rocks of a disinterested Republican Senate majority.

When Americans watched in horror as another spate of mass shootings rocked the Nation, they rose up and demanded change. President Trump and Senate Republicans initially tried to make the right noises. Leader McConnell promised that a debate on expanding background checks would be ``front and center'' in the Senate after shootings in Dayton and El Paso, but, predictably, that debate never came to pass.

That seems to be the M.O. of our Republican friends. When there is a national crisis, major issues, people in the streets worried and concerned and wanting change, we hear words, and then the strategy is delay and, at the end, do nothing. We cannot go through these same motions again.

This is about the original sin of America that we must try to deal with head-on. There are Americans in the streets, shouting at the top of their lungs for change, young people, idealistic people--the best of America. The Senate must pursue comprehensive reform, not the lowest common denominator and certainly not more empty rhetorical resolutions

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