The JUSTICE Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, across the country, there has been a national outcry for justice and for real changes in law to address police brutality and reflect the undeniable truth that Black lives matter.

This week should be our opportunity in the U.S. Senate to come together--Republicans and Democrats--to begin to fix our broken policing system, which is what so many people in big cities and small towns in Oregon and in every State across America are demanding of us. Yet, instead of allowing that kind of bipartisan discussion, Leader McConnell is plowing ahead with partisan business, as usual, on a bill that falls very short of what the Senate ought to accomplish.

I see my friend on the floor, Mr. Scott, the distinguished Senator from South Carolina. I want to make it clear that I have great respect for Senator Scott. He is an important member of the Senate Committee on Finance, on which both of us serve. I appreciate every opportunity to work with him. In fact, I think a fair number of people around the country will note the work we have just done in the last few weeks on nonprofit organizations. So we will be working together, I know, in the days ahead.

Unfortunately, the majority leader is giving short shrift to this debate on ending systemic racism by putting forward an inadequate bill and essentially daring the other side to oppose it. That is not the way you bring together both sides to address big, important national challenges.

Let me take just a few minutes to talk about some of the specific shortcomings of the legislation that Senator McConnell wants to bring to the floor. For example, how can 100 Senators not agree that choke holds are wrong and ought to be banned? That is what my Democratic colleagues and I have called for: a nationwide ban on choke holds, period--full stop.

The Republican bill does not take that same strong, firm position. In my view, you cannot equivocate when it comes to a reform as basic as banning the choke hold. Anything short of a ban creates loopholes for the use of choke holds, and that is the wrong way to go for our country.

Second, this bill doesn't create any real accountability for police misconduct. It doesn't set up independent investigations for prosecutions of police abuses. It doesn't create national standards for law enforcement. It does not end qualified immunity.

Those issues are right at the center of the challenge of reforming policing in America, and they are the issues the American people want to see addressed head-on.

A lot of what the majority's bill--Senator McConnell's bill--does with respect to police conduct is essentially collecting data. Nobody is protesting collecting data. What people are protesting on is they want to save lives. The Senate ought to do better and make those real changes that improve public safety.

Third, the extreme militarization of our police forces in recent years. It is actually an issue that goes back more than a few years, but the danger of a military mindset in domestic law enforcement was never more clear than when Trump officials started talking about ``dominating the battle space.''

Our communities are not war zones; our citizens are not enemy combatants; and our police officers should not be occupying forces, so why has the United States undergone this years' long military mobilization on its own streets, against its own people?

It is long past time for this to end and for all our communities to institute 21st century community policing policies, but the Republican bill does not do that either.

The truth is, Senator Scott's bill does take a few good steps, like establishing the duty to intervene and making lynching a Federal crime. Those are issues that I and other Democrats would like to work on with Senator Scott on a comprehensive bill, but that is not what Senator McConnell has put on offer this week.

My concern is that if the Senate takes up the McConnell bill, it is going to just be business as usual under the Republican leader: a short debate cut off arbitrarily, not enough votes, and not enough improvements to the actual bill. I just don't believe that, when millions and millions of Americans are demanding more, that business as usual is somehow acceptable.

That video of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police stirred a part of America's national consciousness. There have been peaceful protests in all 50 States over the last few weeks calling for us to stamp out racial injustice--people of all ethnicities, of all ages, all genders. It has been a rare display of common purpose and common engagement in America.

As Senators, we have an obligation to respond to that call with something significantly better than business as usual. I know that Senator Scott wants to get there. I know that my Democratic colleagues and I want to get there.

I am proud to support Senator Booker and Senator Harris, who have been doing outstanding work on this issue, and I know that, regardless of the outcome of tomorrow's vote, we are going to keep working.

As for this week, the Senate would be wrong to just rush this process and just check the box with a partisan process, a partisan approach, before shrugging its shoulders and moving on to the task of dealing with more far-right judges.

So I am going to vote against cloture. I urge my colleagues to do the same.

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