[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 49 (Wednesday, April 26, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2930-S2931]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              SUPPORTING THE CAPITOL HILL POLICE OFFICERS

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I have decided now to start speaking 
about this subject again on the floor of the Senate. I think I will 
devote only 10 minutes a week on it. But I am going to do it every 
week. I must say, though, if we continue to operate the way we have 
been operating, I might as well speak about it much more because while 
we are dealing with a very serious question now, we are not about the 
business of legislating. I call on the majority leader to start getting 
legislation out and going at it on amendments. Let's bring some 
vitality back to the Senate.
  I do want to, one more time, say to my colleagues that most all of us 
attended a service for Officers Chestnut and Gibson. These were two 
police officers who were murdered. They were murdered in the line of 
duty. They were protecting us. They were protecting the public.
  I say to my colleagues one more time, I believe Senator Bennett and 
Senator Feinstein on the Senate side are very supportive of doing 
whatever they can. But up to date, including today again, we have 
stations here where you have one police officer for lots of people 
coming through. That police officer is not safe. That police officer 
cannot do his or her job.
  We made a commitment to do everything we possibly could to make sure 
we would never experience again the loss of a police officer's life. We 
can never be 100 percent sure, but we ought to live up to the 
commitment to have two police officers at every station.

[[Page S2931]]

  I say this on the floor of the Senate--and I will pick up the pace of 
this later--if we cannot do that, then we ought to start shutting these 
doors, really. If we cannot have two officers per station and give them 
the support they deserve--I am talking about appropriations--then we 
basically ought to just close the doors.

  I think on the Senate side we have bipartisan support. I do not know 
what is happening on the House side. I must say, today I am 
pessimistic, in terms of what I have heard, that we might even be 
looking at cuts. But whatever we need to do, whether it be paying 
overtime or hiring additional officers, we need to do it so we do not 
lose any lives and we give the Capitol Hill police officers the support 
that we promised to give them.
  I say to my colleagues that I am worried that on the House side, in 
particular, we are not going to get the support. I think it should be 
bipartisan. I do not think anybody should have any question about this. 
Everybody says they are for police officers, and everybody says they 
are for protection and safety, and everybody says they will never 
forget the two fine officers whose lives were lost, and yet when it 
comes to digging in our pockets and doing it through appropriations, we 
are not there. Something is amiss.
  I will try to keep bringing this up every week and hopefully we can 
get this work done.
  I thank my colleagues and yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I will be very brief because my good 
friend, the distinguished Senator from Florida, is on the floor. I know 
he wishes to speak as in morning business. I do not want to hold him up 
on that.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed as in morning 
business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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