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Floor Speech
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Mr. RICKETTS. Mr. President, this week is National Police Week.
Thank you to all of our law enforcement officers across this great country who work to keep our communities safe. In particular, thank you to the women and men who put on the blue in the State of Nebraska.
They face danger every day on our behalf, and they serve with courage.
I believe that Nebraska's law enforcement is a model for the rest of the Nation--their professionalism, their diligence. I will use the example of the Omaha Police Department. The Omaha Police Department has a homicide clearance rate of 100 percent. This is in a time when the national homicide clearance rate is under 60 percent. It is a testament to their excellence and dedication.
Omaha has also seen its murder rate decline in each of the last 4 years. Many cities saw the crime rate go up during COVID. What we see in Omaha now is that murder rate coming down in our great city.
In Nebraska, we back the blue. We support the women and men who protect our communities. It is one of the things that--I am very proud of Nebraskans and the way they do this. We give them the tools and the training, and we have strong laws. In Omaha, we have a prosecutor, Don Kleine, who prosecutes the criminals. We have a great police chief who enforces the law. That is one of the reasons why we are able to bring down, for example, the murder rate.
When I was Governor, we passed one of the most comprehensive law enforcement and public safety packages in our State's history.
We were able to create hiring bonuses for our police departments to be able to help attract and retain law enforcement officers. We increased the educational benefits, the retirement benefits.
We invested in our law enforcement training center to be able to do a better job training our officers. And we invested in our crime lab to be able to help our law enforcement agencies solve those crimes and be able to provide that justice to the victims of crime.
All this is because we, in Nebraska, support the blue. Americans want this Congress to support our law enforcement officers as well, just like we do in Nebraska.
I am also very proud of the work our law enforcement did when we had the southern border crisis under Biden. Joe Biden's lack of attention and terrible policies led to a flood of illegal drugs coming across our southern border.
Law enforcement agencies like the Nebraska State Patrol stepped up to be able to interdict those drugs. In fact, in my year as Governor, Nebraska State Patrol was able to take twice as much methamphetamine, 3 times as much fentanyl, and 10 times as much cocaine as they had done just 2 years prior because of the open border policies of the Biden administration and what that allowed, those illegal drugs in. But our law enforcement stepped up to keep our community safe.
Here, in the U.S. Congress this year, we passed the HALT Fentanyl Act. That will create stronger penalties and make sure that fentanyl is listed as a schedule I drug. When you have stronger penalties, you are going to have tougher sentencing and less fentanyl in your streets. That is important because we, in Nebraska, have seen the tragedies of fentanyl overdoes.
Taryn Lee Griffith was a young mom whose life was taken because she took a pill that was laced with fentanyl. These are the stories that we want to end. We have got to make sure our young people are not being killed by the scourge of fentanyl.
I will continue to work with President Trump to secure our border to give some relief to our law enforcement officers across this country so that they don't have to continue to see stories and tragedies like Taryn Lee Griffith.
We have got to make sure we are supporting our law enforcement officers. I will continue to fight to give our law enforcement officers the tools they need. I co-led the Back the Blue Act, which would increase the penalties for those criminals who are targeting law enforcement officers and give law enforcement other tools to protect themselves.
My colleague from North Dakota was just talking about the Thin Blue Line Act, and I am a cosponsor of that as well. Senator Cruz introduced that bill.
We need to make sure we, in the Congress, are doing what we can to support our law enforcement officers.
During this Police Week, we also recognize those officers who lost their lives in the line of duty. Ross Bartlett was a police officer from Ceresco, NE, Police Department. He lost his life in the line of duty.
His cruiser was rammed by a driver who allegedly was distracted while texting and came into the shoulder. He was killed last year.
This week, his family is in Washington, DC, as part of Police Week, and they rented an Airbnb in Maryland. When the owner of that Airbnb discovered why they were here--and by the way, that owner is a Capitol Police officer--when that Capitol Police officer found out why they were there, he comped their entire stay this week at that Airbnb.
That is the demonstration of the brotherhood and sisterhood among law enforcement officers, and it is one of the stories that all too often gets overlooked of how our law enforcement officers take care of each other as well as take care of our communities.
We recognize the loss of the Bartlett family and honor Ross Bartlett for his service and sacrifice to the community of Ceresco and our State of Nebraska.
During Police Week, I encourage everyone in Nebraska and across the country to say thank you to our law enforcement officers. These women and men protect our communities and sacrifice much for us. Say thank you this week and every week throughout the year and recognize and honor what they do for us.
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