[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 21 (Wednesday, February 1, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S184-S185]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             POLICE REFORM

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, today, the family of Tyre Nichols will 
celebrate the life of a 29-year-old man who was brutally killed by 
police earlier this month. In the wake of this tragedy, we have heard 
the predictable renewed calls for police reform legislation here in 
Congress, something that we attempted not that long ago.
  In the summer of 2020, Senators from both parties introduced police 
reform bills after other high-profile tragedies like the George Floyd 
murder. Senator Tim Scott, on our side--the Senator from South 
Carolina--led those efforts. I was proud to work with him in crafting 
something called the JUSTICE Act, which would reform, retrain, and 
restore trust in America's police officers, something that I believe is 
very important. This package of bills included a number of initiatives 
to improve accountability and transparency and deliver real change to 
our communities across the country.
  I remember, after the George Floyd murder, I asked my friends, the 
mayor of Houston and the mayor of Dallas, if they would assemble a 
group of community leaders so that I could better understand what the 
relationship was, particularly between communities of

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color and the police in those cities. It was pretty eye-opening. While 
many young people and many not so young people are raised to believe 
that the police are their friends and people you could depend on and 
call if you are in trouble, in some communities, there is a lack of 
trust and confidence in the police because of a very different 
experience that they have had in those communities.
  I believe there still is a broad bipartisan appetite for these types 
of reforms that were included in the JUSTICE Act. I was optimistic that 
we could, at the time, pass a police reform bill that was desperately 
needed, but when Leader McConnell tried to bring that bill to the 
floor, our Democratic colleagues blocked it. That is right. They 
blocked it. They refused to allow the Senate to even debate or consider 
this legislation.
  Strangely enough, this package included a bill by Senator Booker and 
then-Senator Kamala Harris to make lynching a Federal crime, but they 
voted to block the consideration of the bill that included their bill 
to make lynching a Federal crime. It just didn't make any sense to me 
then, and it doesn't make any sense to me now.
  This would have strengthened the use and accountability for body 
cameras--I am talking about the bigger bill now, of course--improved 
access to deescalation training and duty-to-intervene training, and 
established two commissions to give us a better understanding and 
recommendations on the challenges that needed to be addressed in the 
long run. But, as I said, our colleagues across the aisle blocked it. 
This important point is worth remembering now as our Democratic 
colleagues renew their call for police reform.
  Now, in light of the filibuster of the JUSTICE Act, I introduced a 
stand-alone bill that included deescalation provisions from Senator 
Scott's legislation, and I worked with my colleague Senator Whitehouse 
on a bipartisan bill that was signed into law last December. So at 
least that piece of the JUSTICE Act did become law. It was signed into 
law by President Biden.
  Deescalation training is very important. That doesn't mean that rogue 
police officers will always follow their training. Indeed, these 
officers, if they were trained to deescalate these conflicts, certainly 
did not follow their training, and they will be held accountable, as 
they should be, by the prosecutors who will bring charges against them. 
But it bears repeating that Republicans tried to bring a police reform 
bill to the floor 2\1/2\ years ago, and our Democratic colleagues stood 
in the way.

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