Joseph Woodrow Hatchett United States Courthouse and Federal Building--

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, tomorrow will mark 1 month since the tragic shooting in Uvalde, TX.

A high school dropout with a history of violence and mental health struggles purchased 2 AR-15s within days of turning 18, and he passed a background check.

He then shot his own grandmother because she wanted him to go back into the classroom rather than drop out of school, and then went to the Robb Elementary School through an unlocked door.

He then opened fire on two fourth-grade classrooms, killing 19 students and 2 teachers.

The American people were shocked, outraged, and devastated by this attack and collectively asked: How can we prevent this from happening again?

Well, the discussion surrounding this topic causes emotions to run high, and I understand why.

For too long, some politicians have tried to pit the right to live in a safe community against the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. They make it seem like our country can only have one or the other--either the Second Amendment or safe schools and churches and grocery stores. And, of course, this is a false choice.

Law-abiding gun owners are not the problem. Men and women who buy guns to protect themselves and their family to hunt or engage in sports--they are not a public safety problem.

Following the shooting, I promised to do everything in my power to try to answer that call to do something. I don't believe in doing nothing in the face of what we saw in Uvalde and we have seen in far too many communities. Doing nothing is an abdication of our responsibility as representatives of the American people here in the U.S. Senate.

At the same time, I reiterated my bottom line, which is: I would not support any provisions that infringed on the rights of law-abiding gun owners. Again, they are not the problem.

But I knew that this effort was about the art of the possible; looking at areas where we could agree and setting aside those areas where we could not.

I was fortunate to find partners who were thoughtful and realistic about how we could pass this bill.

I want to thank Senator Murphy, Senator Sinema, Senator Tillis, as well as a larger group of Senators without whom this legislation would not be on the cusp of passage. Thank you. Thank you for not listening to the naysayers and the critics and those who would spew disinformation and outright lies about what we are doing here and for standing up to the responsibility that we all have as U.S. Senators to do our very best to make progress, to try to answer the call in the face of these tragedies, and try, in the end, to save lives, which is what this is all about.

Now, less than 1 month after the shooting in Uvalde, the Senate will vote soon on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. This legislation will protect our schools, protect our communities, and safeguard the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

I have said it before, and I will say it again: No parent should ever fear for the safety of their child at school, and no child should be afraid to go to school in fear of their safety.

This legislation responds to that in a positive and affirmative way. This bill includes targeted, commonsense measures to prevent violence and to save lives while respecting our Constitution.

(Ms. BALDWIN assumed the Chair.)

Madam President, the dirty little secret is America is experiencing a mental health crisis. Our mental health delivery system is a scandal. Too many people are not getting the sort of attention and care they need in order to manage their mental health challenges. And many of them can be saved from the fate of Salvador Ramos or Adam Lanza if they can get access to timely care and the medication that will help them manage their mental illness. So this bill will represent the single largest investment in community-based mental health care in American history.

That is huge. That is enormously important. And to me it may be the most important aspect of what we do here.

So police officers answering a 9-1-1 call from somebody in a mental health crisis, they don't have to take that person to jail where they won't get help. They can take them to a community-based mental health delivery system--to a clinic. And a person experiencing a mental health crisis, they don't have to go to the emergency room. They can go to a clinic and get the sort of care and help they need in order to manage their condition, whatever it may be.

This bill will also provide support and services for our schools. Our schools should be sanctuary--a sanctuary--for our children, not a place where they plan on what will happen during the next shooting and how they can hide under their desks or try to make their escape. Schools should be a sanctuary. And this bill will provide the kind of services that will help identify students in crisis and help intervene to provide them the assistance they need.

This bill also provides major investments in school safety and security. It includes physical safety measures. We probably can't eliminate human error like we saw in Uvalde, TX, but we can promulgate the best practices, which we have done in this bill, from the best minds based on evidence--what works and what does not--to make sure we keep unauthorized visitors out of the hallways and the classrooms as well as evaluate current protocols and, like I said, develop best practices.

Again, those who say we need to infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens under the Constitution in order to make good policy are offering a false choice. Passing good public policy and supporting the Constitution are not mutually exclusive.

One of the ways we are providing assistance to the States is through crisis intervention grants which will provide the States with funding to implement programs to help those in crisis and prevent them from committing self-harm or harm to others.

We have rejected the idea of a national red flag law, even though 19 States and the District of Columbia have chosen to do that themselves, and one of the ways we can help is to make sure that these funds assist State officials in training them on how to make sure that the due process rights of an individual are protected, as they should be.

This legislation also closes a gaping hole in the background check system which is the lack of juvenile records. This is a real challenge because most juvenile records are sealed or expunged. But we know that Salvador Ramos, who went in at 18-years-old and passed a background check--he was a ticking timebomb. Everybody knew he was struggling with his mental health challenges, and he was slowly circling the drain because he didn't get the help that might have prevented his self-harm, not to mention the harm to others.

But if a person's record includes a criminal conviction or mental health adjudication that prohibits them from purchasing a firearm as an adult, it shouldn't matter whether they were 17 or 18 at the time. That information should be available on the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, and that is what this bill will encourage. Our bill incentivizes the States to upload this information to ensure that disqualifying criminal convictions or mental health adjudications are available.

Unless a person is convicted of a crime or adjudicated as mentally ill, their Second Amendment rights will not be impacted by this legislation, period.

Let me close by saying, I am grateful to Senator Murphy, who has been a good-faith partner. He would like to do a lot of things in addition to what we have done here, but he was pragmatic and realistic enough to know that if we were actually going to be successful, we weren't going to be able to do everything that he wanted. Conversely, there were things that we did on our side that were outside of our comfort zone that, frankly, we are having to explain to people, but that is what a good-faith negotiation looks like. And again, I think, on balance, the good we are doing here and the potential we have to save lives is worth any sort of concession we might have had to make during the negotiation.

Let me also express my gratitude to Senator Sinema, the Senator from Arizona, who has been a key partner in the negotiation as well as Senator Tillis, the Senator from North Carolina. But the truth is, a lot of people were involved in this. And I want to thank all of our colleagues who helped us round out this legislation and make sure it delivers the benefits that we sought. We also worked with a variety of stakeholders from education to mental health groups, to law enforcement, as well as gun rights groups. And I appreciate everybody who has helped us make this product better. And obviously we don't agree on a lot of things, but I am encouraged about how much common ground we were able to find.

Our bill has earned the endorsement of more than 100 mental health and education groups, including the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the National Association of School Psychologists. It has received the support of law enforcement organizations, including the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Sheriffs' Association, the National District Attorneys Association, and the Major Cities Chiefs Association. It has been backed by domestic violence groups such as the National Network to End Domestic Violence and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

I believe we have in the Gallery tonight people who have suffered unthinkable losses of loved ones in some of these mass shooting incidents. But I want to tell them that their advocacy has turned their pain into something positive. I believe the best antidote for the sort of unthinkable loss that they have suffered is the knowledge that something good will come out of their tragedies, something that will save lives.

This broad support for this legislation shows that it is a meaningful comprehensive response to the tragedies we have experienced. And I am proud of what we have been able to do together. And I am very optimistic about the impact it will have on our schools and communities across the country. So, thank you, colleagues, for working together in good faith in a bipartisan way.

I think in one way we have demonstrated to people that our institutions can work. Many have come to doubt whether we are capable of making our institutions work, including the world's greatest deliberative body, the U.S. Senate. And we have proved that we can, when sufficiently inspired by the people in the Gallery and others, when they say do something to come together and find common ground that will help keep our communities safer, protect our children, and save lives.

I look forward to voting yes and moving this bill one step closer to the President's desk for signature.

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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I rise today to thank the National Sheriffs' Association for its tireless work on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

Hon. Charles Schumer Majority Leader, U.S. Senate. Hon. Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader, US. Senate.

Dear Leaders: On behalf of the National Sheriffs' Association, representing over 3,000 Sheriffs across this great nation, we write to lend our support to ``The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.'' The Sheriffs do request that the Medicaid Inmate Exclusion Policy (MIEP) be addressed in a colloquy as the bill is debated. As you know, the federal law does not differentiate between a convicted inmate and a person incarcerated prior to conviction. This anomaly needs to be corrected.

Sheriffs see, up close, the daily carnage of gun violence carried out by criminals and individuals suffering from mental illness. We appreciate the authors coming together on a bill that can actually save lives, which is written in such a way that allows the States to craft their own unique answers to the questions raised by gun violence.

Important to Sheriffs and their communities:

Supporting better access to mental health services in schools is an important part of early screening for 40 million Medicaid students nationwide. Furthermore, in our discussions we have determined that school property hardening is a critical and necessary step in preventing mass school shootings.

Reviewing juvenile records improves current law and may help detect persons not eligible for firearm purchases while protecting their Constitutional rights.

Allowing flexibility in the administration of the new purpose Byrne JAG grant program will help States, and therefore counties, implement crisis intervention courts which may take many forms such as Veteran courts, drug courts and outpatient treatment.

We also find that the due process provisions for extreme risk protection, ``red flag'' orders, maintain the 5th and 14th amendments and provide the rights and tools necessary to defend oneself.

There are many other provisions of the legislation that are also important but too numerous to mention here. The Sheriffs are available to discuss this bill with any member of your Caucus/Conference who might have questions. Thank you for your work on this legislation. Very respectfully, Jonathan Thompson, Executive Director and CEO, National Sheriffs' Association.

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