[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 91 (Wednesday, May 25, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2692-S2693]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Robb Elementary School Shooting

  Madam President, I cannot imagine what it was like last night in 
Texas in the homes of the 19 or 20 children who lost their lives in 
that Robb Elementary School gun massacre. Those are the longest, 
loneliest nights of your life as a parent when you have lost a child. 
And for each of them, it came as a stunning shock: a child sent off to 
school, nearing the end of the school year, probably happily 
anticipating summer camp, a visit with relatives, a family vacation, 
whose life was taken away in an instant.
  The freedom and joy of youth was ripped from every single one of 
those 19 children, and 2 of the heroic teachers who sought to protect 
them when they were murdered in cold blood by this gunman.
  Today, instead of thinking about vacation and summer, the parents are 
sadly making funeral arrangements for their babies. Others are sitting 
down with their children and trying to explain why their playmates are 
not at school.
  It is not even June, and this year alone there have been more than 
200 mass shootings in the United States. My colleague Chris Murphy of 
Connecticut said last night there had been more mass shootings than 
days in this last year.
  Now families across America are stepping forward to offer their 
condolences, to donate to the families who lost these precious, 
precious children, and to demand that this Senate act to prevent 
something--do something to prevent the appalling acts of mass murder 
that we see way too often.
  The Members of the Senate have to make a choice: Will we listen to 
the American people in their overwhelming numbers calling on us to set 
politics aside and stop the killing of children and other innocent 
Americans or will we cower in front of the gun industry?
  The lives of countless children, and I might add, grandchildren, 
depend on our answer to that question.
  It was 21 years ago--hard to imagine--but 21 years ago this September 
when we lived through 9/11.
  That morning, I was in this building, down the hall at a meeting at 9 
in the morning called by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. We had 
just heard that a plane had crashed into a skyscraper in New York, and 
we didn't know much more. We quickly turned on the television to see 
another plane crash into an adjoining building. It was obvious that 
something horrible had happened. And it wasn't long after that that we 
looked out the window and looked west down the Mall to see black smoke 
billowing in. We learned it came from the Pentagon, where another plane 
had crashed into that building.
  That was a day none of us will ever forget, nor should we. It was a 
day when America changed in so many ways. That was the beginning of TSA 
security checks at airports. Things that have become commonplace in our 
life were initiated because of 9/11.
  And did we ever mount an effort to stop international terrorism 
against the United States. We were serious. It was a deadly serious 
issue, 3,000 innocent people losing their lives on 9/11. We were bound 
and determined--so determined that this Senate declared war on al-Qaida 
and called for the invasion of Afghanistan.
  I voted for that because I felt then and feel now, no one should 
attack the United States with impunity. There is a price to pay. And so 
we made a decision which for 20 years guided our foreign policy 
in Afghanistan and other decisions by the scores around the world that 
really fought international terrorism.

  We learned something recently. Last year, we had the Director of the 
FBI come before us, and I asked him about domestic terrorism. What 
about the terrorists in America itself who are killing innocent people? 
His report to us was sobering. He said it is a real threat, and it is a 
threat that is metastasizing. We know that horrible word from the 
disease of cancer. It means that the cancer itself is advancing in a 
deadly way. That is the way the FBI Director described domestic 
terrorism.
  As we mourn yesterday's mass shooting in Uvalde, TX, we have a bill 
coming before the Senate tomorrow that responds to the mass shooting 
that took place in Buffalo just 11 days ago, in which a gunman killed 
10 Black Americans in a racist act of violence.
  Tomorrow, we will vote on my bill, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention 
Act. I first introduced it in the year 2017, and that passed the House 
on a bipartisan basis last week.
  This legislation will help law enforcement combat the serious and 
lethal threat of domestic terrorism. It will authorize offices within 
the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland 
Security that are squarely focused on this threat.
  And these offices will be required to regularly assess domestic 
terrorism risk and provide training and resources to State, local, and 
Tribal law enforcement.
  The bill will also establish an interagency task force to combat 
White supremacists' infiltration of the uniformed services and Federal 
law enforcement.
  Like gun safety reform, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act is long 
overdue. I first held a hearing on domestic terrorism 10 years ago 
after a White supremacist marched into a Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, 
WI, opening fire and killing seven people.
  In the 10 years since, violent White supremacists have massacred 
Americans with their sickening attacks. In 2015, a White supremacist 
shot and killed nine Black worshippers at the Emanuel African Methodist 
Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC.
  At the time, it was the deadliest attack in a place of worship in 
recent American history, a horrifying record that sadly was surpassed 
just a few years later.
  In 2018, an anti-Semitic terrorist killed 11 people at the Tree of 
Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Think about this for a moment. There are 
members of that synagogue who actually survived the Holocaust in World 
War II, only to be targeted by the same hate nearly 80 years later in 
America.
  A year after that, a far-right extremist killed 23 people at the 
Walmart in El Paso, TX, targeting immigrants and members of the 
Hispanic community. Some of these gunmen subscribe to the same racist 
conspiracy theory as the shooter in Buffalo a few days ago, the so-
called ``great replacement theory.''
  It has become the great rallying cry for White supremacists. Each of 
these acts of hate-fueled mass murder has torn apart a community, 
traumatized the Nation, and left unimaginable grief and pain in its 
wake.
  And so it was over a year ago that FBI Director Christopher Wray 
testified to domestic terrorism metastasizing and growing in the United 
States.
  Well, I think it is time that we take action to stop this threat. 
Time and again, the Senate has failed to take any meaningful steps to 
prevent violent extremism. When exactly did stopping mass murder become 
a partisan issue? It wasn't like this after 9/11.
  Twenty years ago, Republicans and Democrats joined in common cause to 
confronting international terrorism threatening America.
  After that horrific act of mass murder on 9/11, we worked together on 
a bipartisan basis to reconfigure our entire national security 
apparatus. We created a new Agency, the Department of

[[Page S2693]]

Homeland Security, designed to prevent the next 9/11.
  To be sure, there were moments when we went off in the wrong 
direction. Over the years, we worked to rein in legislation like the 
PATRIOT Act and protect civil liberties of the American people.
  As lawmakers, our responsibility is to enact sensible solutions and 
save lives while also protecting our Constitution. That is exactly what 
the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act is all about. It will improve 
data collection on incidents of domestic terrorism and strengthen 
Federal coordination to combat it.
  That is why it makes no sense to me that there are Republicans who 
oppose it. The same Republicans who once took bold steps to prevent 
terrorism on an international basis now won't even allow us to debate a 
bill to prevent terrorism at home.
  There are actually Republican Members of the House who are cosponsors 
of my bill, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, who just last week 
voted against it, cosponsors. What exactly is the reason for this 
Republican opposition?
  Well, one Senate Republican claimed that the Domestic Terrorism 
Prevention Act would be ``the PATRIOT Act for American citizens.'' That 
is phony and wrong.

  First of all, as I just mentioned, the PATRIOT Act was flawed. It was 
an excessive policy response to a nation in panic. I should know 
because I voted for it and then led the effort to change it. Here is 
why the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act is different.
  Unlike the PATRIOT Act, it will not provide any new law enforcement 
or surveilling power to the government. It also does not establish a 
single new criminal offense. Let me repeat this. The bill that comes 
before us on domestic terrorism does not create any new Federal crime, 
period. This is a modest bill with a simple goal: ensure that the 
Federal Government devotes existing resources and authorities to what 
has been identified by the FBI as the most significant domestic 
terrorism threats.
  Who supports this bill? The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human 
Rights, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Arab-American Institute, 
the NAACP. All of them and more support the Domestic Terrorism 
Prevention Act.
  I hope our Republican colleagues will join us in a bipartisan effort 
to keep America safe. Last week, I spoke to the courage and sacrifice 
of Aaron Salter, a retired police officer who was working as a security 
guard in that Buffalo grocery store at the time of the attack.
  When the shooter entered the store, Officer Salter jumped into 
action. He fired multiple shots at the attacker, but his skill and 
courage were not enough. He was outgunned. He had a pistol. The shooter 
had an assault rifle and a tactical vest. It is a scenario that, sadly, 
is becoming too common. We saw it yesterday in Texas.
  The attacker in yesterday's school shooting in Uvalde was also 
carrying an assault rifle and wearing a tactical vest. He reportedly 
shot two officers before entering the school and wounding a Federal law 
enforcement official.
  Can the Members of this Senate say in good conscience that we have 
done enough to protect the lives of police officers and the children in 
communities like Uvalde? Of course not. They were killed by people who 
never should have had a gun in the first place.
  With the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, this Senate can take the 
first step of many steps needed to save lives and reject hate. The next 
step is finally closing the loophole that allows guns to fall into the 
wrong hands. Ten years ago, after 26 little children, God bless them, 
were murdered by a disturbed gunman in Sandy Hook Elementary School, we 
voted to close gaps in the gun background check system, and we fell 
short.
  Will we finally close those gaps now after another school filled with 
little babies and children was targeted in a mass shooting? The CDC 
reported last week that for the first time in more than 60 years, car 
accidents are no longer the leading cause of death for kids and teens. 
As of 2020, the leading cause of death of children and adolescents in 
America is guns--guns. Guns are the No. 1 threat to our children.
  When will we finally find the courage and the spine to pass 
commonsense changes to our gun laws that the vast majority of Americans 
support?
  Well, this Friday, the National Rifle Association is holding its 
annual meeting in, of all places, Texas. A few of the politicians who 
are scheduled to speak at that gathering were among the first to send 
their thoughts and prayers to Uvalde. Well, I hope and pray they will 
find the courage to stop cowering before the gun lobby and take action 
to save our children's lives.
  Let me address one last misconception about this bill. A number of my 
colleagues have said: Well, why did you have to use the words ``White 
supremacists'' or ``neo-Nazis'' in the bill? Why did you want to focus 
on that?
  Let me make it clear that we are focusing on domestic terrorism, and 
that is why we mention White supremacism. The bill requires reports to 
Congress on all domestic terrorism activity, with a breakdown by 
specific category.
  The bill requires that White supremacist terrorism be one of those 
specific categories. We include this requirement because during the 
Trump Presidential administration, the FBI was ordered to stop tracking 
White supremacist attacks as a separate category of domestic terrorism.
  Remarkably, the FBI stopped tracking White supremacist attacks in the 
middle of the spate of White supremacist violence, including the lethal 
attack at the 2017 Charlottesville ``Unite the Right'' rally and the 
2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting.
  This decision also came after an unclassified May 2017 joint 
intelligence bulletin from the FBI and the Department of Homeland 
Security that found ``white supremacist extremism poses [a] persistent 
threat of lethal''--lethal--``violence,'' and that White supremacists 
``were responsible for 49 homicides and 26 attacks from 2016 . . . more 
than any other domestic extremist movement.''
  I am not making this up. People are dying because of these 
extremists. We are asking the FBI and other Agencies to identify the 
incidents of violence so that we can track them, find if they are 
growing or receding; train local law enforcement to recognize it.
  This bill does not require collecting of data on First Amendment-
protected speech at all, no matter how vile that speech may be. It only 
requires the FBI to provide a report to Congress on violent domestic 
terrorist activity that the FBI is already investigating.
  In fact, this bill does not provide any new law enforcement or 
surveillance powers to the government. It does not establish any new 
criminal offenses.
  This morning there is an outrage over the violence that took place in 
Texas. The question is, Can we channel this outrage into an active, 
productive effort to pass legislation to make America safer?
  We know what the problem is. We know what the challenge is with 
domestic terrorism. The question is, Can we gather the information to 
put an end to it? Isn't that our responsibility, what comes to our 
responsibility as Senators and as citizens in this country?
  In the U.S. Senate, let's start with this bill. Domestic terrorism is 
for real. We saw a form of it in Buffalo, NY, and we are going to see 
it again, I am afraid, unless we take it very seriously.
  Fighting terrorism used to be a bipartisan effort, and I hope it will 
once again.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
following Senators be permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each 
prior to the scheduled votes: Murray, Wyden, and Brown.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.