Unanimous Consent Requests

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHMITT. 77, S. 180; Calendar No. 79, S. 419; Calendar No. 80, S. 539; Calendar No. 82, S. 1316; Calendar No. 83, S. 1563; further, that the committee-reported substitute amendment to S. 1563 be agreed to, the committee-reported amendment to S. 1316 be agreed to, the committee-reported substitute amendment to S. 539 be withdrawn, and the Cornyn substitute amendment at the desk to S. 539 be agreed to; finally, that the bills, as amended, if amended, be considered read a third time and passed en bloc and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

I rise to request unanimous consent here on the bills that were just mentioned, to call up and pass this year's Police Week bills. These are bipartisan bills. These are common sense. Most importantly, particularly in light of recent events--and you can turn on the television right now and see what I am talking about--they would give this Chamber the chance to demonstrate its commitment to the men and women who wear the badge and to the laws they serve to protect.

This is not a time to mince words or blur lines; this is a time to speak clearly with full moral force.

In cities across the country, our law enforcement officers are beset from below and above. From below, on our streets, they face an emboldened criminal element and a resurgence of organized political violence. From above, in the halls of power, they face a political class which seems hell-bent on undermining and attacking them at every turn.

We have watched this unfold for years now. The press has smeared and defamed our police officers, seeking to incite hatred and violence against them. Fringe academic ideas about defunding police and shuttering prisons have moved from the classroom, to the courtroom, to the legislature, and then to codified laws. Riots. Lawsuits. Slashed budgets. Malicious lies blared through the largest megaphones in our country.

Time and time again, the system has sided with the criminal over the cop, the looter over the law. The result of this system could be seen in unprecedented waves of violence that ravaged our cities in the wake of the George Floyd riots in 2020. It can still be seen today on the streets of cities overtaken by antifa. These are not rhetorical or theoretical concerns; we watched it happen in real time.

It is not the product of social conditions or inequity or systematic this or that; it is the inevitable result of a civilization that has lost its moral nerve, a civilization that is too wracked by guilt to punish its criminals, to enforce its laws, or to confront its enemies-- even when those enemies are beating police officers and firebombing Federal buildings right before our eyes.

When a government loses the ability or the will to defend its own cities, its own institutions, its own people, then it ceases to be a government worthy of its name.

The path back to justice is simple. It requires laws like the ones we are going to consider here today.

It requires protecting the people who protect us, like the bill to equip first responders with protective gear against fentanyl exposure, keeping them safe from the very poisons they are trying to fight.

It requires ensuring that our police officers are healthy in body and in spirit, like the bill to reauthorize critical mental health services for cops and their families. Every single year, more police officers die by suicide than die in the line of duty. This is profoundly a policy failure and one that is on us to fix.

It requires hunting down the predators who seek to prey upon our kids from the darkest recesses of the internet, like the bill to reauthorize and modernize the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. This bill funds and enhances our ability to catch and convict the very worst kinds of criminals--those who target and abuse children.

It requires building strong police departments with officers who know the neighborhoods and the people they protect, like our bill to send local recruits to police academies if they agree to serve in the precincts in their own communities.

It requires wisdom and experience, like the bill to give State and local agencies the ability to rehire retired officers in civilian law enforcement roles.

If you stand on the side of justice and our first responders, these votes should be simple and easy.

With that, I would ask to move forward.

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Mr. SCHMITT. It is attempting to throw a lifeline to these sanctuary cities that are openly defying the law. In order to receive Federal grant dollars, you can't withhold information from Federal law enforcement. That is what they are doing. That is what it means to be a sanctuary city.

What you are saying is, we are not going to work with ICE or any other Federal Agencies because we want to protect illegal immigrants in our cities.

That is what is happening. That is deeply unpopular with the American people. And that is why the President is taking this action to try to get these cities to come along and be part of the program with the rest of the country to say: We are all going to work together to keep our communities safe.

This provision is a direct attempt to undermine the Trump administration's attempt to do that and their renewed enforcement of our immigration laws.

I know some people got used to the last 4 years, where 20 million people came here illegally and Federal law enforcement was handcuffed by the Biden administration to actually enforce our immigration laws-- so much so that the rhetoric that had been exhibited at that time now has carried over, and you see fire bombings, and you see attacks on ICE officials, attempts to dox them, to destroy their families and their reputations and their finances, because they have been led to believe by many with the loudest microphones that somehow everyone is entitled to be here for as long as they want, that Federal laws don't matter, that borders are arbitrary lines on a map and we are all global citizens.

The white papers from the sixties and the seventies found their way into the highest offices in government in the Biden administration. These Ivy League grads who wrote these white papers or read these white papers or were indoctrinated by these white papers were suddenly in charge. Well, there is a new sheriff in town who actually believes in law and order.

So I would hope that city leaders who defy our Federal laws shouldn't be entitled to Federal tax dollars. Federal grant dollars are not entitlements. They are not unconditional welfare for far-left activists. If you want Federal funds, you have to comply with Federal law.

Sanctuary cities are in open defiance of Federal law. They actively prohibit their officials from cooperating with Federal immigration officers. They release violent offenders, suppress gang databases, and do everything in their power to prevent the men and women in law enforcement from enforcing our laws. That is what they are doing in sanctuary cities right now.

Every one of the Police Week bills that I have offered for unanimous consent--and my friend from New Jersey is indeed a cosponsor--are very, very bipartisan. I can't actually believe we are in a place where we are going to be holding up that kind of bipartisan legislation when you see the violence against law enforcement officers in our country every single day. This is a lifeline to them, the help they need not just to do their jobs but to be able to seek the services so they can be healthy, physically and mentally.

So let's be clear about what is happening. My friend has, you know, a few moments here to reconsider this. These are common sense. If there is anything from last November we can take away, it is that the American people voted for a return to common sense.

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