[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 37 (Wednesday, March 4, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H1578]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BUILD TRUST
(Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House
for 1 minute.)
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Homeland Security
Committee and one who was in a security briefing this morning, I cannot
celebrate more to the brave men and women of the Department of Homeland
Security that many of us stood up collectively together as Americans
and provided for full funding. Let me thank them for their service.
Let me move on. Yesterday, another very provocative and important
action was done. The Department of Justice report came out regarding
the city of Ferguson, where it found that Blacks account for 85 percent
of traffic stops, 90 percent of tickets issued, and 93 percent of
arrests.
Mr. Speaker, this is not about Ferguson, though many are trying to
heal--and we offer sympathy again to Michael Brown's family--but it is
about America. I call upon my Republican friends and Democratic
friends. We act on facts. These are facts that are probably implicated
across America.
I have introduced the Build TRUST bill. I hope we can come together
to find a way, both in terms of our law enforcement and making sure
that they go home to their families, but also have a just and fair
pattern, if you will, of treating the citizens of every hamlet and town
and city and State in this Nation. We owe that to our beliefs in the
Constitution, Mr. Speaker.
I encourage a bipartisan effort to look at how we can address these
questions across America. We deserve that as Americans.
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