[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 51 (Monday, March 25, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1921-S1922]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Fix NICS Act

  Mr. President, this last Saturday marked 1 year since the Fix NICS 
Act was signed into law. This legislation meant a lot to me personally 
because it

[[Page S1922]]

fulfilled a promise I made to the members of the Sutherland Springs 
community after the deadliest shooting in Texas history.
  On November 5, 2017, a deranged gunman opened fire in the First 
Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, killing 26 people and rocking our 
entire State to its core.
  The gunman had a criminal record, a record of violence and mental 
illness. He had been convicted of domestic violence while serving in 
the military and by law should not have been able to purchase or 
possess a firearm, but the National Instant Criminal Background Check 
System, known as NICS, did not have a record of his crimes because they 
had not been transmitted by the U.S. Air Force to the FBI. In the wake 
of that tragedy, it is hard to rid your mind of the what-ifs. What if 
his criminal record had been uploaded to the NICS database? What if he 
had not been able to purchase a gun? For the friends and family of 
those lost that day, those questions are almost too tough to ask 
because they know the answer: Their loved ones might still be alive 
today.

  Sadly, there is nothing we can do to bring back the loved ones they 
lost that day, but I knew there was something we could do to prevent 
other families and communities from experiencing that sort of pain, 
grief, and loss. Less than 2 weeks after the tragedy, Senator Murphy 
from Connecticut and I introduced the Fix NICS Act to prevent these 
systemic failures from happening again. This legislation penalizes 
Federal Agencies that fail to properly report relevant crimes and 
incentivizes States to improve their reporting.
  These sorts of commonsense reforms gained broad bipartisan support. 
In fact, there were 77 cosponsors here in the Senate alone, including 
both the majority and minority leaders, something of a rarity in my 
experience. It also gained the support of a diverse group of national 
organizations, from the National Rifle Association to the National 
Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Fraternal Order of Police, and 
the National Shooting Sports Foundation. When President Trump signed 
this bill 1 year ago, it marked the strongest update to the background 
check system in a decade.
  I appreciate the support of my colleagues for this legislation. What 
we were able to demonstrate is that Congress can work in a bipartisan 
way to address a problem if we just put our minds to it. I appreciate 
the support of the Sutherland Springs community in the wake of the 
tragedy, something they are still feeling even today. I am confident 
that this legislation will help to save lives and make our communities 
safer.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.