[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 101 (Monday, June 1, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2625-S2626]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                PROTESTS

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, 1 week ago today, a White police officer 
in Minneapolis, MN, knelt on the neck of an African-American man named 
George Floyd, pinning him to the ground for over 8 minutes as he pled 
for his life. The officer callously refused to heed those calls, 
standing up only after Mr. Floyd was unresponsive. Mr. Floyd was 
pronounced dead shortly thereafter. It was 8 minutes--8 minutes--that 
he was pinned there.
  Today, 8 days later, our Nation is reeling. It is reeling over the 
injustice and senselessness of George Floyd's death, reeling over the 
memory of Ahmaud Arbery, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, 
and the unimaginable number of innocent lives that were taken in 
similar circumstances. Our Nation is reeling from centuries of racial 
injustice, a legacy as old as the Nation itself and one that haunts us 
to this day.
  It took two and a half centuries and the Civil War to finally end 
slavery in America. It was 100 years more until the descendants of 
those newly freed men and women could fully enjoy the rights of 
citizenship. Even today, slavery is still with us. Its terrible legacy 
and evil effects are felt in real and discernible ways every single 
day.
  When the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in 
the 1830s, with amazing prescience he predicted that the United States 
would become a great nation--the greatest in the world--even though at 
the time we were a fledgling country, compared to the great powers of 
Europe. But he also said that the one thing that could doom our Nation 
was racism and racial prejudice. His words ring true today.
  The racial disparities in our criminal justice system have been on 
full display, but these disparities permeate not just the criminal 
justice system but all of society. There are glaring racial disparities 
in healthcare and housing, racial disparities in income and in wealth, 
in the board room and at the ballot box, on our streets and in our 
schools. These disparities have been with us a very long time, but 
COVID has placed a magnifying glass on them. Perhaps most evident and 
immediate, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to infect and kill African 
Americans at a disproportionate rate. We are confronted by the all too 
often fatal consequences of those disparities on a daily basis.
  George Floyd's killing touched off justified protests and 
demonstrations across the country, driven by Americans of every age, 
color, and creed who were distressed and upset, frightened and angry by 
the America they see and feel compelled to change. The overwhelmingly 
peaceful protests do honor to the generations of Americans who stood up 
and sat in and shouted at the top of their lungs in the urgent mission 
to make America a more perfect union. The small minority who exploit 
the moment for violence and mayhem are wrong and do not advance the 
cause of justice.
  I would note that while over 4,000 protesters have been arrested in 
the last week, only 1 in 4 of the police officers involved in the 
killing of George Floyd has been arrested. While that statistic does 
not excuse the violence we have seen, it certainly helps to explain the 
frustration and anger right now.
  There is accountability when everyday citizens and protesters violate 
the law, but that same accountability is far too often lacking when law 
enforcement violates the law, and we have to fix that. We must work to 
bring accountability to police departments so that bad actors are not 
shielded from culpability and those many officers who do the job the 
right way are incentivized and rewarded.
  We must reform our laws and our police practices so that events like 
George Floyd's killing are far less likely in the first place. There 
are many examples of departments that have made strides at improving 
community relations, transparency, and accountability, while reducing 
unwarranted violence and racial bias. We need to build on those best 
practices and get all of our police agencies to adopt them.
  We must invest in services and programs necessary to deal with issues 
unrelated to law enforcement, such as housing and mental health, rather 
than asking police officers to be responsible for addressing all of our 
society's challenges. There are many ways to address the broader 
disparities in our society, the systemic racism, and the injustice that 
follows America around like a shackle in our laws, in our customs, and 
in too many of our hearts. We have to make progress on these issues 
right now--not later, not next year, not after the next George Floyd 
but right now.
  Senate Democrats will be confronting and addressing all of these 
issues this week, and many of my colleagues will prepare legislative 
plans of action. We will listen to experts on these issues and our 
constituents who face these challenges on a daily basis. Be sure of 
this: We will propose and push for bold action.

  Leader McConnell, however, will decide whether or not the Senate will 
take any of that action. At the moment, he has reserved the floor of 
the Senate for the confirmation of several rightwing judges, many of 
whom will become part of the very problem we are now discussing: a 
justice system that doesn't work for everyone, a biased system.
  These are judges who were preselected specifically because of their 
antipathy to voting rights and civil rights and criminal justice 
balance and fairness. Time and again, the Republican majority has 
confirmed judicial nominees who pledge loyalty to an ideological 
doctrine that would exacerbate the very inequalities that have been 
laid bare in recent weeks and months. Leader McConnell is doing that 
this week, once again.
  At this delicate time, the Senate should lead on these issues rather 
than aggravate the problem. Leader McConnell should commit to put a law 
enforcement reform bill on the floor of the Senate before July 4. There 
shouldn't be hearings on President Trump's wild conspiracies about the 
2016 election or a month of rightwing, anti-civil rights judicial 
nominees. As the COVID pandemic continues to rage and Americans are 
taking to the streets to express their anger at police violence and 
racial injustice, the Republican majority in the Senate must focus on 
the national crisis at our doorstep.
  Today--just today--the CBO is expected to release an estimate of the 
damage to our economy caused by the pandemic. If the current trends 
continue, the CBO predicts a jaw-dropping $16 trillion reduction in 
economic growth over the next decade--$16 trillion.
  There are 40 million Americans currently unemployed. Where is the 
urgency from Senate Republicans to address the economic catastrophe in 
our country, a catastrophe that, like police violence, will 
disproportionately affect African Americans and other Americans of 
color?
  We should address both these issues--COVID and police violence--this 
month, not spend time on fringe conspiracy theories and not spend time 
on putting rightwing judges who have shown no sympathy to civil rights 
and racial justice and harmony on the floor of the Senate.
  This is a moment that cries out for leadership, for compassion, for 
sympathy, for understanding, for action, and for our leaders to bring 
us together instead of letting events tear us apart. But the leader of 
our country, the President of the United States, struggles--struggles--
to summon even an ounce of humanity in this time of turmoil.
  The President has reacted to the pain and anger in the country by 
playing politics and encouraging police to be tougher on protesters by 
bragging about his reelection prospects and his personal safety inside 
the White House. A Presidential tweet invoked a Miami

[[Page S2626]]

police chief, who, in 1967 encouraged shooting Black people during 
riots. The President seems unable even to address the underlying issues 
that the protests are about. He is unwilling--unwilling--even to speak 
to the Nation about racial justice.
  Unfortunately, none of this is remotely new with President Trump. A 
few years ago, President Trump told law enforcement officers not to 
worry about injuring suspects when arresting them. His administration 
stopped investigating State and local police departments for racial 
discrimination and repealed restrictions on police departments 
obtaining military-style weapons. The President's policies have 
worsened racial divisions in this country. His rhetoric has 
consistently inflamed them.
  Either the President is too afraid to lead or is simply incapable, 
but all of us, right now, have to engage in the difficult work of 
pulling this country together and then forward. We are a nation 
exhausted and dispirited. In the midst of a once-in-a-generation 
challenge, we have been reminded of a generation's-long struggle for 
racial justice and equality. The only way--the only way--for us to move 
forward is to do it together.
  It is time for the large majority of police officers who do a very 
difficult job the right way to be part of a reform effort, for our 
national leaders in the Senate and the House to take up thorny issues 
of prejudice and discrimination and begin changing the laws and 
institutions that perpetuate it, and, yes, for the President to finally 
start acting like the leader he is supposed to be and the Constitution 
calls for.
  We are all engaged in this project to not only recover from a public 
health crisis and an economic disaster, but to build a society when 
none of our citizens fear the men and women who are supposed to protect 
them--a society where Americans of color can live and breathe and watch 
birds in a park and walk home with a bag of Skittles without fearing 
for their lives.
  As millions of Americans take to the streets in peaceful and 
righteous protest, I hope that this moment--one of pain and sorrow and 
grief--can also be a watershed moment for action.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Ernst). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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