[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 215 (Friday, December 18, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7685-S7686]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 4605

  Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, 3 days ago, I came to the floor and spoke 
in honor of the life of Tyler Herndon, a Mount Holly, NC, police 
officer who lost his life just days before his 26th birthday last week. 
He was laid to rest this week.
  Now 5 days after his murder and 3 days after my remarks, I am 
devastated to report that another officer in North Carolina has lost 
his life in the line of duty. Wednesday night, the Concord Police 
Department received a call about a crashed, abandoned car on I-85 just 
outside of Charlotte. Responding officers were alerted that the suspect 
had attempted to steal a woman's car while she was still in it.
  Officers Jason Shuping and Kaleb Robinson tracked and identified the 
suspect on foot. As they approached the suspect, he pulled out a 
handgun,

[[Page S7686]]

and he shot both of these brave officers. Tragically, Officer Shuping 
died at the scene. Thankfully, Officer Robinson is recovering at the 
hospital. Officer Shuping was just 25 years old--the same age as the 
officer we memorialized this week, Tyler Herndon.
  I am just devastated by this. These brave officers had begun their 
careers in law enforcement and had nowhere to go but up. They were 
serving our community, and they were doing it with honor.
  We talk a lot about the sacrifice given by law enforcement officers 
who day in and day out are serving our communities and putting 
themselves in harm's way, and it is dispiriting to think that these 
fallen officers, at the very beginning of their careers, have already 
made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of public safety and community 
safety.
  Families in North Carolina and in each of our States are about to 
endure their first Christmas without their loved ones. We owe so much 
to these families whose parents, spouses, siblings, children, and 
grandchildren have given everything in the line of duty.
  On Tuesday, when I spoke on Officer Herndon, I said that in the next 
Congress, I would be moving forward with the Protect and Serve Act 
again. This act increases penalties for people who murder or assault 
police officers. But in light of another police officer's death--the 
second one in a week in North Carolina, in the suburbs, just around the 
corner from where I live, 10 or 15 minutes away--I think we have to 
elevate the discussion now and send a very clear message to those who 
would harm police officers that if you do, then there are going to be 
dire consequences to pay for it. We owe it to the police officers to 
let them know that Congress cares about them. We should send this 
message.
  This is a simple bill. It only focuses on those who are so brazen 
that they would murder a police officer in the line of duty, assault 
them, ambush them--all the things you have seen; now 48 murders in this 
year alone.
  The best thing we can do is to pass this commonsense legislation and 
send a message to these people who are taking away the men and women 
serving our communities.
  Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent 
that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration 
of S. 4605 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; 
further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and 
that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the 
table with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Illinois
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, the Protect 
and Serving Act of 2020 that has been offered by my colleague and 
friend Senator Tillis creates a new Federal crime that would punish 
assaults on law enforcement officers, including State and local 
officers, by up to 10 years and up to life if death results from the 
offense or the offense involves kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, or 
attempt to kill.
  Let me say at the outset that I had a few seconds to communicate with 
my colleague before this official colloquy on the floor.
  I say to the Senator, I sensed in your voice and what you told me how 
personal this is to you. This just isn't the killing of a law 
enforcement officer, which is a tragedy all of itself. It is your 
neighborhood. It is your community. As you said, some of these 
officers, you know their families, and it is very personal.
  I want to say first, I offer my condolences to the families and 
colleagues of Officer Jason Shuping, who lost his life in Concord, NC, 
and Officer Tyler Avery Herndon, who lost his life in Mount Holly in 
the line of duty in North Carolina in the last few weeks. These are 
terrible tragedies.
  We had a similar situation, of all places, in the Loop in Chicago 
just a couple of years ago--Commander Paul Bauer. What a spectacular 
man he was in service to the city of Chicago and the State of Illinois. 
He was murdered in the Loop. Unfortunately, his poor young family had 
to go through the ordeal not only of the funeral but also, then, of the 
trial of the suspect. I raise that only because Paul Bauer's assailant 
was successfully prosecuted by the State of Illinois and was given a 
life sentence just recently.
  As is the case in most of these situations, to my knowledge, I would 
say to the Senator from North Carolina, every State, including his own, 
takes this very seriously and prosecutes cases of harm involving law 
enforcement officers.
  The individual responsible for shooting Officer Shuping is dead. If 
he had lived, he would have been prosecuted for a capital offense in 
North Carolina. The individual who allegedly shot Officer Herndon has 
been indicted for first-degree murder in North Carolina.
  So it raises the question, why is it necessary to create a Federal 
crime for something already being successfully prosecuted in every 
State in the Nation? Assaults on police officers are already 
criminalized with enhanced penalties, as they should be, and assaults 
on Federal officers are already Federal offenses. I have a lengthy list 
here, which I will not read to you, of all of the Federal statutes that 
already provide for punishment up to death and a life sentence for 
those Federal officers who would be shot or harmed in any way.
  So let me say this to my friend and colleague from North Carolina: I 
thank you for standing up on the floor and bringing this matter to our 
attention. We should never overlook the fact that these men and women 
serve us selflessly and risk their lives in the process. It has 
happened here in the Capitol. It happens in every corner of America, 
sadly. But let's save this for another day. Let's take this up in the 
new Congress, which is about to start in just a few days. Let's address 
this issue, as well as the issue of how to make the plight of our law 
enforcement officers safer and more effective. To deal with issues 
involving that, I think, would be a balanced approach to this, which 
would serve justice.
  For those reasons, I will object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
  Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I am obviously disappointed in the 
objection from my friend and colleague from Illinois, but I do believe 
that we have to start recognizing that something bad is happening--48 
murders, hundreds of assaults, ambushes, premeditated attacks.
  I do understand the idea that maybe you could prosecute it through 
existing law, your Federal or State law, but we have an epidemic of 
``abolish the police, defund the police,'' marginalizing the police, 
that suggests to me that even if there are pathways now to properly 
prosecute these brazen criminals, we have to cut through some of the 
rhetoric that, honestly, I believe is the responsibility for some of 
these unprecedented numbers of murders and assaults.
  So although I am disappointed with the objection today, I look 
forward to working with my colleague on the Judiciary and others to do 
everything we can to pass the Protect and Serve Act and to send a very 
clear message to these increasingly less safe communities and more 
threatened law enforcement officers that we are going to do everything 
we can to make our communities safe and to make a police officer's job 
as safe as it can be.
  Thank you.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.