Cloture Motion

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I want to say right off the top, it was truly an honor to join President Trump at the White House on Monday. He assembled Senator Hagerty and I and some of the Federal Agencies in the Oval Office to sign an Executive order and to announce the deployment of the National Guard to Memphis.

It is going to be several Federal Agencies that are going into Memphis. Now, the reason for this is that Memphis has had the highest crime rate in the country. And for years, we have seen Democrats that have enacted soft-on-crime policies, and this has taken, truly, a tragic toll on Memphis. In many parts of the city, Memphians cannot walk outside without fear of being mugged, robbed, carjacked, murdered.

And what we know is this: Memphis, TN, is a historic city. It has a very rich cultural history. And it is also the logistics hub of our Nation. We have the Port of Memphis; we have FedEx; we have I-40 that goes from the east coast to the west coast that runs right through Memphis; and we are also home to all five class A railroads.

Now, Memphis also has a lot of major corporations. FedEx is located in Memphis. It was started in Memphis and has remained there. You also have St. Jude, which is so vital to medical research in our Nation; International Paper; so many other companies are located there.

But the crime crisis in Memphis has been driven by gang violence, and it has held that city and that West Tennessee region back for about 4 or 5 years now. There are actually about 100 gangs that are there in Memphis.

So President Trump is doing his best to help work to make Memphis safe again.

Now, we have had an FBI operation that has taken place in Memphis, and this marks the next phase of what is a multipronged, multi-Agency strategy to fight this crime.

This summer, the FBI, under Director Patel, conducted Operation Viper in Memphis, and the FBI worked with the Memphis Police Department and Chief Davis. And what they did was to surge Federal resources from the FBI into Memphis and Shelby County in order to actually arrest and get indicted and try these gang leaders.

So as we go into this next phase, you are going to see additional resources come to bear. You are going to see the ATF, the DEA, Homeland Security, continued sources from the FBI, Tennessee Highway Patrol, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marshals Service. They are all going to be there to support the Memphis Police Department.

This is going to be important to do to make certain that this crackdown on crime--making Memphis safe--is going to continue.

Now, the National Guard is a part of this, as I said, and these National Guards men and women are going to help maintain order so that the Memphis police officers can be on the street and be tracking down and arresting these criminals, getting them off the street.

We saw this strategy succeed in Washington, DC, where in just over a month, the President's crime crackdown here in our Nation's Capital brought car thefts down 36 percent; robberies were down 62 percent; homicides were down 57 percent.

Tennesseans have been applauding this success that we have seen. Memphians are applauding this. I have talked to Memphians who have been here this week, and they are so pleased to see the President's commitment so that they know this is going to be a long-term effort to make certain that we address crime.

Now, in the Senate, we have several bills that are supporting this effort. My Ending Cashless Bail in our Nation's Capital Act, which would require Washington, DC, to use the highest level of cash bail necessary for dangerous offenders as a condition of pretrial release; my Keep Violent Criminals Off Our Streets Act, which would ban the award of certain Federal funds to States and localities across the country that limit the use of cash bail; my Federal Carjacking Enforcement Act would empower Federal prosecutors to hold carjackers accountable; my Restoring Armed Career Criminal Act would reinstate an important tool for prosecutors to seek enhanced penalties against violent, repeat offenders; Restoring Law and Order Act would increase funding for law enforcement and help keep violent criminals behind bars.

We should get all of these bills across the finish line and ensure that President Trump has the tools he needs to restore law and order in this country. We should pass these bills so that our law enforcement, our judges, our DAs have every tool they need to get these career criminals, these gang leaders off the streets in Memphis, TN.

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