Motion to Discharge
Floor Speech
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Mr. BOOKER. We are facing a reality right now wherein there are lots of threats that are increasing against public officials all around our country, and I understand that.
This is not a bill that Senator Menendez and I just wrote and brought to the floor. This is a bill that we worked through the committee process. It was a long and arduous process that was done in a bipartisan manner. During the discussion that the committee had, the point that the Senator from Kentucky brought up was brought up as well. There is a real concern about the safety and security of the Members of this body. But with the understanding and the commitment that there would be a bipartisan effort to work on this issue, every Senator on the Judiciary Committee said we should let this go for right now. This bill has been vetted; it has been worked over in a bipartisan manner; and it is ready to pass.
Threats on the Federal judiciary have gone up 500 percent. I will grant you, threats on Members of Congress have doubled, but the threats on the Federal judiciary are rising, and we saw that in the case of Justice Kavanaugh. This body thought it enough not to hold up the protection of Supreme Court Justices in order to protect the 535 of us, and we passed a bill to protect the Supreme Court Justices.
So here we now have a bill that has been vetted in committee, that has been worked on in a bipartisan fashion, and has come out, and we have a commitment. For the Senator from Kentucky to say that nothing has been done is not right. We now have Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Amy Klobuchar working a bill through committee, through regular order, to make sure that we address the concerns that he is having.
This is my concern: Threats on the judiciary have gone up and are significantly higher than on this body. To grind this bill to a halt right now puts at risk members of the judiciary when we have the power in this body to protect our brothers and sisters in that branch of government.
Why would we stop when there is good will on the Judiciary Committee to work on the concerns?
There are two people who are committed to this bill, and there are verbal commitments from everyone. To stop this today creates a window of vulnerability that we know is real because we just saw a threat on a Supreme Court Justice.
For the sake of mercy, for the sake of caution, for the sake of the protection of the people in the Federal judiciary, let's pass this bill. I commit myself to joining with Senator Ted Cruz, to joining with Senator Amy Klobuchar, to joining with Chairman Durbin and with Ranking Member Grassley, who have also spoken of their willingness to work a bill through regular order. That is what we should be doing.
Our job as Senators, if anything, first and foremost, is to protect the lives of American citizens. We have a bill that is widely bipartisan, that has proven to be urgent--a bill with a name of a young man who was slaughtered in his home. To hold this bill up is cruel. It is creating risk and jeopardy to people who serve in the judiciary. It is wrong. It is wrong. It is wrong.
I ask my colleague, with all humility and with all compassion and empathy, to please let this go. I commit to him that I will fight and work with the bipartisan coalition that is working on ways to protect the people in this body.
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Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I literally turned to my staff and asked: Has Senator Paul's staff reached out to us at all?
That is not the case.
Then, to characterize us as the opposition, we are not in opposition to this bill. We are trying to protect Federal judges as is the unanimous vote of the Judiciary Committee.
I just find that problematic.
I am willing to meet with the Senator. I am not in opposition to his bill. The meeting which would be had, I will do but with the two sponsors of the bill to protect the U.S. Senate. But to hold up the protection of other fellow citizens because we are not getting protection, to me, does not mark the nobility of this body and the self-sacrifice of this body.
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