[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 8 (Thursday, February 3, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S314-S315]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SECURITY FOR CAPITOL HILL

  Mr. WELLSTONE Mr. President, I want to repeat what I said yesterday. 
I am going to come out on the floor every day and spend a few minutes 
on this question.
  Many of us attended the services for Officer Chestnut and Agent 
Gibson, the two officers who were slain. I believe we all made a 
commitment to making sure that we were going to have security for our 
police officers, much less for the general public.
  Starting back in October, I realized we have a single-person post. We 
have posts--I say to my colleague from Oregon, who has always cared 
about these questions--where you have one officer with lots of people 
streaming in. This is unconscionable. It puts these officers at great 
risk. It puts all of us at great risk. You could have one deranged 
person who could show up at any of these stations with other people 
coming in, and God knows what would happen.
  After these two police officers were slain, we passed a supplemental 
appropriations bill that was a little over $1 million. It was to go for 
weapons, investigations, security, and if we needed more overtime so we 
could staff these stations through overtime. The Sergeant at Arms of 
the Senate has made it crystal clear we have to change this situation. 
I have talked to him. I told him I was going to speak on the floor. He 
said: Please do so.
  I am not going to point my finger and say this particular person or 
that particular person is at fault. I am just going to say this: We 
should be able to do better for these Capitol Hill police officers. 
They do well for us.
  We made a commitment that we would not put them in a situation where 
we did not have real security. We are doing that.
  We still have single-person posts. I raised this question back in 
October before we adjourned. I was told there would be changes. But we 
still have not put the resources into this. I say to my colleagues if 
this is an issue of spending and we need to spend more money and we 
need to have more police officers, then let's do it. If this is some 
sort of an internal issue where we somehow need to figure out how to 
use overtime pay to staff up, then let's do it.
  I don't know what the policy answer is. I will leave that up to other 
people. I am not going to be the one to micromanage. But I will say 
this as a Senator: Every day I am going to come out on the floor, and 
every day I am going

[[Page S315]]

to say we lost two police officers; that we made a commitment in their 
memory to make sure we would have security; we made a commitment to 
make sure that we would not have single-person posts. That was a 
promise we made. We have still not lived up to that promise. We should 
do better. We should do better for the Capitol Hill police. We should 
do better for the general public. The sooner we do, the better.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
  Mr. WYDEN. Thank you, Mr. President.
  I want to tell the Senator from Minnesota how much I appreciate him 
speaking up for the Capitol Hill police officers. When we think about 
the many people in this country who are decent and caring, right up at 
the top of the list are those folks who serve this country as Capitol 
Hill police officers. I commend the Senator for his persistence in 
being willing to speak up for those folks day after day. I will find 
time to come out and join him.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. I thank the Senator from Oregon.

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