Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOKER. Madam President, I thank you for the recognition, and I thank the Democratic leader for his words.

The Democratic leader talked about what is happening in our country. I have never seen something like this before in all my years, where hundreds of thousands of Americans have been out in protest--and not just certain sectors. In all 50 States, in large cities and small towns, Americans from every background, race, religion, and political party have joined together following the gruesome capture of the torture and murder of a fellow American.

This is a profound moment. It is a moral moment. We know this is not a partisan moment because the good will of all Americans is evident, from national polling that shows that real reform is widely supported by people of both parties to just the voices of people who are saying that we are a nation formed around a fundamental idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, to have it so fundamentally violated. The call is for us to act, to come together as good men and women and do something to protect human lives.

We have done that before on the Federal level in a bipartisan way, coming together to protect people against indiscriminate violence--from the Violence Against Women Act to even the historic, bipartisan work that went on to get 99 Members of this body behind an anti-lynching bill.

I am grateful for that aspect of our history, that this is a body that has acted multiple times to try and protect human life.

Well, no one need watch a video of 8 minutes and 46 seconds again to understand that this body now holds a true moral choice of how will we act. What will we do in this moral moment in our country? Will we come together and protect life and liberty or will we do nothing and allow the violence to happen, the cycle in our Nation, the name after name after name after name that we know and the thousands of other names that we do not know--Black lives being abused, civil rights being violated, lives being lost because we have failed the moment in our Nation?

A little over 2 weeks ago, Leader Schumer, Senator Harris, and I, along with colleagues in the House, introduced an act that was narrowly focused on accountability. It zeroed in on what we could do to create accountability, to ensure oversight, to implement transparency, and to ban actions that people in this country, in both parties, widely believe should and must be banned.

The bill that is being put forth by Leader McConnell is wholly unacceptable to bring accountability, transparency, and consequences when our common values as a country are violated. This is not about partisanship--a Republican bill and a Democratic bill. It is about taking meaningful action that will create change.

The bill Leader McConnell wants to put on the floor is called the JUSTICE Act. It belies its name because it does not--in any way--even serve as a starting point or even a baseline for negotiations.

The American people are not in the streets chanting ``We want more data; we want more data.'' The American people are not in the streets chanting ``Give us a commission; give us a commission.''

We know the data, and we have had commissions--from the Kerner Report all the way to the Task Force on 21st Century Policing. What we are hearing a demand for, from voices all over our country--including from leaders in police departments to mayors, to local leaders, to activists--is real accountability; that if you do something wrong in America, there will be consequences; that no one is above the law; that we, in this country, will make sure that those who represent law and enforcement do so in a way that accords with our common values and our common ideals.

In fact, we want to go further in this country. We have a greater moral imagination that does not have us trapped in the quicksand of the present but calls to us to rise to a higher ground; that we could be a nation that imagines ourselves having a larger definition of law enforcement, a larger definition of public safety. We cannot get mired in this moment. This must be the start of climbing to that higher ground.

The problem with the bill that Leader McConnell wants to put on the floor, it is not bold. It is not courageous. There is no great imagination about what we can be. It doesn't challenge us to come together. What it does is guarantee that the cycle of violence in our country, the cycle of the abuse of civil rights, the cycle of death that has so moved so many Americans will continue.

If we don't implement real measures of accountability for police officers in this country--as the Republican bill fails to do--it is not if but when we will be back here again after another police officer kills another unarmed Black person and faces no fear of Federal accountability in the courts.

If we don't establish real transparency measures with a national registry of police misconduct--which Leader McConnell's bill fails to do--it is not if but when we will be back here again, after another officer who has a record of inappropriate use of force will get fired from one town and hired in the next and end up hurting another citizen, violating their civil rights or--worse--killing them.

If we do not end those harmful practices that Americans from all backgrounds know are wrong, like racial and religious profiling, no- knock warrants in drug cases, and the use of choke holds--which this McConnell bill fails to do--it is not if but when we will be back here again after another Breonna Taylor is murdered in her own home after a no-knock warrant, after another Eric Garner is suffocated to death on a sidewalk with an inhumane choke hold.

If we do not create a national use-of-force standard in America-- which this Republican bill, again, fails to do--we will be back here again the next time another officer uses deadly force when they could have used deescalation because that deadly force was ``reasonable,'' though not necessary.

I hear the voices. We all hear the voices, the anguish, the agony, the pain, the trauma, the hurt. It has triggered a nation to rise up like has never happened in the last 50 years.

We are in a moment of profound possibility, but what do we face? We face it being shut down here in the Senate over an impotent bill that fails to meet this moment.

The American people are demanding accountability, not commissions; they are demanding accountability, not study; they are demanding accountability, not data collection alone. We have to ask ourselves: Will we stand for a bill with zero accountability or will we rise?

I am so frustrated because I have been here now for 6 years, and I have seen, from inside this body as a Member to even before I came here, how the leader has done bipartisan efforts. I saw it on immigration reform. A Gang of 8 was formed, discussions were had, and they came to a bill. They put it on the floor, and they voted for it.

I have seen it in this COVID crisis. People met and worked on solutions.

I have seen, time and again, when there is a sincere desire to come to a bipartisan consensus, how it works. But this is not how Leader McConnell is acting now.

Where is the good faith? Where is the yearning for justice? Where is the desire to get something real done?

There have been no hearings. He has called for no discussions. He has called for no meaningful engagement--in the way we have done in the past--from stakeholders and groups that have been working on this issue. He has not sent it to the appropriate committee of jurisdiction.

This is not what the American people want. This is not what this moment calls for. This is shameful. This is a desire to turn a page, to point a finger of blame, and to leave the calls for justice in this country falling upon the mute ears, the deaf ears, of a body that should be hearing, listening, and responding.

There is no easy fix for the problems we face, but they do demand work. They don't demand simple monologues; they demand real dialogue. This is not a time to retreat into our corners. It is a time to engage each other.

I cannot, in any way, give any justice or sanction to what is going on in this body now. We will be back here again. We will see more video capturing the dark corners of our country that must be brought into the light and solved with the spirit of this Nation.

I join Chuck Schumer and Kamala Harris in urging Majority Leader McConnell not to proceed in this way. It is not progress. It is an attempt to turn a page on history that we will have to revisit. Every minute, every hour, every day we do not act, Black lives are in danger; our fellow citizens are in danger; we as a Nation, our principles and ideals are in danger.

It is time that we come together and provide hope from this body that serves, truly serves, to honor what the public is calling for, which is action--not retreat but for us to try, in this body, to rise together.

I yield to my colleague from California.

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