Monitor Accountability Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Raskin for yielding.

This morning, in our newspaper in Cincinnati, there was a story about how we are spending $25 million on police overtime because we don't have enough cops. Our community, like communities across the country, is struggling to hire police officers. I don't understand why we are messing with monitors or one monitor. All of these issues that communities across the country are facing with public safety, crime, gun violence--cities, towns, counties, they all have this one thing in common: What they need is more cops.

In the middle of Police Week, we have got four bills, including this one. As Mr. Raskin said, I don't think any of them are going to become law. They don't have a companion bill in the Senate. I don't know what we are doing during Police Week except we are not funding cops.

In fact, since the Republicans took the majority, the cop funding has gone down. Byrne has gone down. The COPS grant funding has gone down. I have tried to get my bill on the floor, which would just allow folks who have the COPS grant to use that money to retain and recruit police officers, just the flexibility, but I can't get a hearing and can't get a vote.

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Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, if y'all want to help police officers and communities, especially during Police Week, hire more cops, help communities pay for police officers.

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