The JUSTICE Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor today on the eve of what should be a routine vote in the U.S. Senate. Tomorrow the Senate is scheduled to vote on a motion to proceed to the justice reform legislation that we ought to be considering in the U.S. Senate.

It is important to point out to the American people what that means. This isn't a vote yet on passage of the bill. It is not a vote to end debate. It is not a vote to amend the debate. Any Senator can amend, vote no, or offer different substitutes for the bill. This isn't any of those things. The motion to proceed is a simple and rather routine agreement to begin debate on a bill. Yet, here we are. It has turned out to be anything but routine.

Senators on the other side of the aisle in this very Chamber are threatening to filibuster the motion to proceed--filibuster even allowing us to debate a bill of great importance to the Nation.

In terms the American public might better recognize, the Democrats are threatening to filibuster the very issue--the very issue--that they claim to care about. If you listen to them on television, if you see them in the streets, talking to groups, they claim to care about it. Welcome to the bizarre world of partisan politics and bankrupt leadership on that side of the aisle.

On the same day that the minority leader will come to the floor to urge the Senate to pass justice reform legislation, he will also attempt to rally his Democratic caucus to block even starting a debate, and they seem to be following him, refusing to even debate an issue which is so key in the minds of the American people. He is telling his Members to filibuster the bill.

Madam President, the JUSTICE Act deserves a debate. It deserves a debate for the American people to see and to hear and to watch on television. The American people deserve that. What they don't deserve is partisan obstruction. What they don't deserve is a filibuster. They need a debate. Amend the bill if necessary and then pass it. We want to try to stop what happened to George Floyd--a murder that we all witnessed--from ever happening again in America.

The American people know that. They took to the streets, and now they are turning their heads to Washington, to the Capitol, and saying: What can you do to make sure that something like this never happens again?

We have a bill that addresses all of these issues, a bill that is ready to come for a debate. Yet, again, the Democrats are threatening and are likely tomorrow to vote one after another after another to go up and vote no to even beginning debate on the bill.

Incredibly, they began knocking this bill authored by Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina with many of us as original cosponsors--they began knocking this bill before they ever read it, before they knew what was in it. They attacked it before it was released. While the bill was still in the process of being written, they were attacking it. Then Senator Tim Scott unveiled the legislation, and almost immediately the Democrats decided to agonize over whether to block it. They were agonizing over allowing a debate on the floor of the U.S. Senate-- agonizing over a debate. I mean, you could hear them in the halls: I don't know. Should we get on it? Shouldn't we get on it?

What was the issue? Racial justice. We need to be focusing on that and discussing it and passing meaningful legislation that will make measurable progress. It shouldn't be a tough call.

Senator Schumer came and said: We should have a bill on the floor by July 4. Here we are; it is before July 4. We brought the bill. It has a 70-percent overlap and agreement with what the House has to offer.

Here we are, yet Senator Schumer is telling his Democrats to line up, one by one by one, and say: No, we don't want to debate or even discuss your bill even though it has a 70-percent overlap in agreement with what the House of Representatives is offering as a meaningful solution to a concern that all of us have.

I don't say this often, but Senator Schumer ought to listen to Nancy Pelosi because the Speaker knows we are not that far apart. The Pelosi and the Scott bills share many of the same goals--much of the same underlying legislation. Senator Scott says that they agree 70 percent of the time on the issues. At one point, Speaker Pelosi said that she would love to go to conference with what we have going on in the Senate. The Wall Street Journal, last Wednesday, published a chart, and it showed just how similar the two bills are--the JUSTICE Act in the Senate and the bill that the House is working on as well.

The Scott bill ensures that both African-American communities and law enforcement communities are protected. This is precisely why the JUSTICE Act can and should become law. Without a doubt, this is our Nation's best chance for change--best chance in 25 years. It is the best chance to put the 1994 Biden crime bill in the rearview mirror. It is a chance to pass meaningful reforms and a chance to make a law that actually makes a difference--a difference in communities all across the country and in the lives of people all around America.

So Democrats will be asked to vote tomorrow, and they have a choice to make. They can continue to filibuster, to say ``No, no, no, we don't even want to get on the bill to debate it'' or to offer amendments to improve upon it, to look for common ground. Or they can do what apparently they want to do, which is to continue the status quo, which is not what we need in America today. They ought to be embracing bipartisan reform.

The JUSTICE Act is not--as one Democrat on this very Senate floor sadly described--a token. That is what he said on this Senate floor. This reform bill is serious. This reform bill is significant. This reform bill is substantial, and we should pass it. At a minimum, we should at least debate it on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

Democrats plan to filibuster simply debating the bill. They should be held accountable by the very American people that they claim they are looking to help--claim they are looking to help. Well, they have an opportunity to help all American people when we vote tomorrow.

So I urge my Senate Democratic colleagues: Do not filibuster this historic bill. This is a wonderful opportunity to move our country ahead. We can build on the progress of the last 4 years--opportunity zones, permanent funding for historically Black colleges and universities, the FIRST STEP Act. Let's build on this record. Let's debate it. Let's amend it as we see fit, and then let us pass the JUSTICE Act and send it to the conference committee that Speaker Pelosi talks about, and then send a bill to the President of the United States and have it signed into law and help our country move ahead.

Thank you, Madam President.

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