Protect Act--Motion to Proceed
Floor Speech
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Mr. JOHNSON. I have been busy. I haven't really been able to really research it, and that is part of the problem with what our Democratic colleagues are trying to do here in just quickly rushing it through the U.S. Senate. Maybe this has had a full vetting in the House of Representatives, but here, in the U.S. Senate, it hasn't gone through any committee process whatsoever.
Unfortunately, I also have to make the point--because I am sure they are trying to make a political point as opposed to trying to make law today--that I am opposed to all forms of domestic terrorism, including White supremacists. I think I speak for all of my Republican colleagues, and I think I speak for every U.S. Senator: We all abhor domestic violence and terror, including White supremacists.
Again, I don't have much knowledge about this even though I am chairman of the committee of jurisdiction of one of the Departments that would be subject to this piece of legislation. I know that the Department was not consulted on this piece of legislation. I have been given notice here that the Department of Justice does not support this piece of legislation because it says it would seriously impede its ability to work in the domestic terrorism space. Again, I am not exactly sure why the Department of Justice does not like this piece of legislation. Suffice it to say that it doesn't. The Department of Homeland Security was not even consulted on this. As chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, I don't know anything about this bill.
This is not the way to pass a serious piece of legislation that deals with a serious issue. If it is a good piece of legislation, the sponsors should have no problem running it through the normal committee of jurisdiction process. In this case, apparently, it is with the Judiciary Committee, but I would think my committee would also have some pretty strong equities in this space, not to mention the fact that I have been working with my ranking member on precisely these types of issues.
Instead of just trying to make a political point, what I have always tried to do is get a result and make law, but that has to go through a thoughtful process that uses the full committee process, which is not the case here.
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