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Floor Speech
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Mr. MORENO. 1771, which is at the desk; further, I ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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Mr. MORENO. It is now indisputable that the last 4 years saw more injuries and more deaths of law enforcement officers than at any time in American history. Let me just read to you some of the data.
From 2021 to 2023, more officers were feloniously killed than in any other consecutive 3-year period of time over the last 20 years. Let me repeat that. There were more deaths over the last 3 years than in any 3-year period in the last 20 years.
Let me give you the numbers. One hundred ninety-four officers were killed from 2021 to 2023. Last year, in 2024, 234 police officers were killed in the line of duty.
Tomorrow, we will see their families on the Capitol. We will see the moms that no longer have their kids, the kids that no longer have their moms and dads, the sisters that don't have their brothers, the brothers that don't have their sisters--234 officers just last year, including a Cleveland police officer that, Mr. President, I think you know well.
His name is Jamieson Ritter. I wear his badge today with honor. He was killed on the Fourth of July, responding to a police call in Cleveland. He was a good person. He went in there, gave all the notice he could. As the arrests were being made, the assailant shot and killed him.
Imagine that phone call. Mr. President, you have now almost adult kids and daughters. You have an adult son, I believe. Imagine getting that phone call that your child has been killed in the line of duty, a person who put their entire life under risk for us, for our communities.
My colleague from Connecticut, in his State, just a year ago--and I hope he remembers it, and I am sure he does because I assume he is a good man. There is a gentleman named Aaron Pelletier. He got killed a year ago. He was a Connecticut State trooper killed in the line of duty. He was one of those 234 people.
Just, sadly, a week and a half ago, Larry Henderson, my age, retired from the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office. You know how you go to some places and you go to a funeral, and they always say, ``He was a good man,'' and you are not sure if people meant it or not because it is a terrible time of tragedy? As I walked into the Cintas Center, a place where you have large gatherings of people, there was a line out the door, cars around the corner to pay tribute to him and his family.
You know what everybody said? Of all the people, how could it have happened to Larry, a good man.
I talked to his wife. I talked to her about this bill and how important this was to the community to get this done. As I was telling her that, she gave me a big hug and said: Please fight for Larry and for the others that wear the uniform so that this does not happen again.
In 2025, the list keeps growing. We continue to see more and more fallen officers. So what is the solution?
I understand my colleague is objecting, but I assume he is listening carefully and not just ignoring what I am saying, but rather willing to change your mind, because here is the reality. There are a lot of things that happen here on the Senate floor. There are a lot of things we may not agree with. There are lots of policies where we maybe have one viewpoint on the Republican side and one on the Democrat side, and that is fine and that is healthy. I think that is what this institution was intended to be. In my humble opinion, having been here 4\1/2\ months, I wish there was more debate--that there was more robust conversation about the issues--but here we are.
This is a very simple bill. This bill just says: Look, let's just make certain that there is Federal jurisdiction whenever a Federal law enforcement officer is killed or injured in the line of duty. Let's make certain that we have the police officers' backs like they have ours and put a mandatory 20-year prison sentence for anybody that harms a member of law enforcement. That is it.
It is not a 2,000-page bill, not a 4,000-page bill. It is a 3-page bill. It is just a simple way that this institution, this body, can come together. And in your case--to my colleague from Connecticut--you have had Aaron Pelletier. I am sure you and your community suffered greatly when you lost him in the line of duty, just as my community in Southwest Ohio and Cincinnati suffered when this great man, after retiring from the line of duty--after retiring--he is out directing traffic for a graduation at the University of Cincinnati and was absolutely murdered for the crime of wearing the uniform.
We can stop this. We can today. Today can be a day that people-- Americans--watching, who have less and less faith in our government's ability to come together to get things done, when they see bickering and arguing, and they don't quite understand what it is that we are doing here--today is the day we can come together and say: We, on both sides, not as Democrats or as Republicans but as Americans--that we support law enforcement.
That is what I am asking my Democratic colleague to consider--just a simple statement. We, the entire U.S. Senate, can come together for once, unanimously, and say we have the backs of law enforcement and pass the Larry Henderson Act.
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Mr. MORENO. First, let me say I appreciate my colleague's willingness to acknowledge that we have to support law enforcement.
The reason I went into elected office is to prevent these types of debates. I am proposing legislation that is clear you support. You want to make certain that we punish anybody who harms a member of law enforcement. It is very simple. The objection isn't about looking forward. The objection is saying: Well, I can't support something going forward because I am upset about something that happened in the past. That is a political comment. That isn't a matter of what is good for public policy. Tell Lori Henderson why her husband had to die because you are upset about something politically that happened in this Chamber.
I wasn't here last year. I wasn't here the year before that. I wasn't here the year before that, and I certainly wasn't here in 2001. If we are going to move forward as a nation, we have to come together on a forward-looking basis. We have to draw the line now and say: No more law enforcement officers should ever be harmed.
What this bill will do is it will send a massive, chilling effect to anybody looking to harm a member of law enforcement.
You should look at that and say: That is fantastic.
And if you want to have a conversation about what happened 4\1/2\ years ago--where you know better than I do; you have been here a lot longer--the Constitution gives the President full pardon power. Joe Biden pardoned almost 10,000 people, including 32 people who were on death row, and commuted their sentences to life instead of death, which is what they had been convicted of. I don't want to have that debate because it has nothing to do with Larry Henderson. This bill is about saying we will protect law enforcement.
The people watching this are so hungry for a government that works. We don't have to wear a Republican jersey and a Democrat jersey at every turn. We can come together as a country and say--look, you said you agree. You said you agree that it should be a standard for all Federal police officers. That is what I am proposing: every single member of the Capitol Police, every single member of the FBI, of ICE, of the U.S. Marshals--anybody who protects all of us. By the way, the people who look to do us harm don't know if we are Democrats or Republicans. I had a gentleman drive to my home in Toledo when I wasn't there. He knocked on our door. My wife is not used to not answering the door when somebody knocks. He was there to kill me. Thank God the Westlake Police Department is 90 seconds away. If we don't put a stop to this--if we don't just put down our little lapel pins that call us Democrat or Republican--we are never going to be able to do anything in this country.
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Mr. MORENO. Let me finish real quick. The point is very simple. I get it. I get it. Politics has become a sport. It is about one team winning and one team losing, but that is why I ran for office, and I hope you can remember back when you first ran for office. What is it that you wanted to really accomplish? Did you want to make this country better for your kids and grandkids? be able to look them in the eye someday and say, ``I made this country better''? We do that by coming together on things that we can easily agree on, and we agree--we agree--that we should defend law enforcement. Let's do it now, not next week, not next month because between now and then, we are going to lose more Larry Hendersons. I find that unacceptable.
Imagine, my colleague, if the families, tomorrow, of the 234 slain officers--what it would feel like for them to come to the U.S. Capitol and say: Look, in this time of Democrats versus Republicans, where they can't agree on anything, seemingly, they came together to say: Today, we will never allow another Federal police officer to be harmed in the line of duty.
I know you objected, but I will ask you one last time. I think it is--and we don't need to go on all evening. I don't have Cory Booker's stamina, but I will say this. Please consider the message you are sending to every single mom or dad who puts on the uniform that says there is a process question: I don't like the process in which this is happening. I am mad at my political enemy. I may have or others may have political aspirations, and this may hurt us.
Think about that family who does wake up every day to protect you just in the same way they protect me.
God bless them.
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Mr. MORENO. As my colleague knows--again, better than I do--the President of the United States is given the constitutional authority on pardons--
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Mr. MORENO.--and there is no mechanism with which this body can change that, but what we can change--what we can change--is what happens from here forward. We can say that anybody who harms a police officer is going to do 20 years in prison. Now, Biden pardoned 9,500 people--9,500 people. This is not the debate that we are having.
Do you know what I have found in business that is maybe a little bit different than politics? The way to be successful is to look forward. If in business all you do is look in a mirror and blame and try to score points, you lose. We have to look forward.
You just said we have common cause. You don't want police officers-- by the way, you and I--
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Mr. MORENO. Hold on.
Mr. MURPHY: Let's decide--
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Mr. MORENO. Hold on.
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Mr. MORENO. As my colleague knows--let me just restate--
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Mr. MORENO. Let me just state this again very simply. I haven't interrupted you, and I would ask you to give me the same courtesy.
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Mr. MORENO. That is OK. Look, we don't know each other. We acknowledge that.
I actually believe that, in everybody, there is the innate desire to do good and that Democrats and Republicans love this country. This country is a gift to me. I came here from another country, as you know, and got the ability to live in this country. The issue at hand--in front of us--and what we can do right now is to pass the Larry Henderson Act, something that you have acknowledged that you agree with the elements in that bill: a mandatory 20 years for anybody who harms a Federal law enforcement officer. You said you agree on that.
We can have 100 distractions that go right back into another conversation. If you want to have a conversation, which, by the way, because I have gotten to preside--you have had that conversation multiple times. You and your colleagues have had it and you should and you deserve to have it. That is not the issue before us today. The issue before us today is, Do we want more Larry Hendersons?
So you asked me a question. I would ask you a question: If in the next week you knew that there was another Aaron Pelletier and we could have avoided that because we could have had a deterrent of a 20-year jail sentence for that person, what would you feel you would tell their family, ``I was fighting a 4\1/2\-year-old grudge''?
Do you know that you can make a difference right now? We can do this right now. That is what the American public may not know and that I didn't know until I got here. We can actually pass this bill in the U.S. Senate right now--right now. We would make news. We would make history. We passed a bill--somebody from Ohio whom you would consider to be, maybe as a pejorative, a MAGA extremist and somebody who would say, maybe, disparaging things about your political beliefs. Both you and I--we have never met. We have never had a conversation. We have never shared a cup of coffee. We could save the lives of law enforcement officers all over this country. We could do that tonight.
I will ask you a question: Is it worth risking the life of a law enforcement officer to score political points?
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