[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 84 (Thursday, May 18, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H2448]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                     SANTA FE SHOOTING ANNIVERSARY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 9, 2023, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Weber) is recognized for 
the remainder of the hour as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. WEBER of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arkansas 
for his service to the people of Arkansas and the people up here in 
this very humble institution.
  Mr. Speaker, today marks the 5-year anniversary of the shooting in 
Santa Fe High School where 10 innocent lives were lost at the hands of 
evil. We will never forget that. We will never forget that tragic day 
that has forever changed Santa Fe, Texas.
  My heart and my prayers still go out to the family and friends of 
those we lost, and I remain immensely grateful to the law enforcement 
officers who responded to that scene at their own peril.
  Mr. Speaker, it is often a good guy with a gun that stops the bad guy 
with a gun. In Santa Fe, Texas, it was a brave law enforcement officer. 
Let me tell you that disarming legal gun owners will never, ever make 
us safer. There are, however, Mr. Speaker, steps that we can take to 
secure our schools without infringing on our citizens' Second Amendment 
rights.
  There is no reason why our schools should be soft targets. We clearly 
have the resources and the means to protect the most precious amongst 
us, and that is going to be our children and their teachers.
  Mr. Speaker, we should do everything we can to help school districts. 
We can hire armed professional police officers to help protect our 
schools, the kids, protect their teachers, and the staff.
  Following the shooting in Santa Fe, I participated in roundtable 
meetings to discuss that very thing; namely, enhanced security for our 
schools. I heard about the need to emphasize safety in school 
architecture and design. We heard about ways to encourage gun owners to 
responsibly lock away their weapons, and the ways school marshal 
programs can ensure that armed and trained personnel are present on 
those campuses.
  In response, I introduced a school safety package, Mr. Speaker. The 
first bill in that package is the Protect Our Children's Schools Act, 
which would allow the Secretary of Education to use unspent COVID-19 
funds designated for schools and localities to reprogram those funds to 
make our schools safer against those kinds of attacks. This money would 
be used to strengthen and enhance security systems already in place at 
those schools.
  The second bill, Mr. Speaker, the Protect Against School Shootings, 
or the PASS Act, would allow qualified law enforcement officers, 
retired law enforcement officers, and those permitted by State law to 
carry a firearm in an otherwise gun-free school zone.
  Then there is the School Resource Officer Compensation Act, which 
would incentivize school districts to hire retired law enforcement 
officers to serve as school resource officers, or SROs, by exempting 
the respective school districts from the additional expense of having 
to pay matching Social Security contributions to anyone desiring to 
serve in this critical safety role.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a win-win-win. Schools get armed and trained by 
professionals. The schools can hire those professionals at a reduced 
rate and enjoy the additional savings. The law enforcement officer 
professionals can continue to serve their communities by protecting 
those very kids in their communities without financial penalty.
  The last bill in the package is the Securing Our Schools Act, which 
would enhance school security, including doubling school resource 
officers, hiring more school-based mental health counselors, and 
expanding the nonprofit security grant program.
  Mr. Speaker, I think we all agree that we need to secure our schools 
to ensure another senseless crime doesn't happen in our communities.
  Today, I pray for Santa Fe High School and the families who lost 
their loved ones. May 18, 2018, will forever be ingrained in me and 
etched on my heart.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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