[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 85 (Thursday, May 16, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H3280-H3281]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              POLICE WEEK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Casten) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CASTEN. Madam Speaker, it is Police Week, the week when law 
enforcement officers who keep us safe all over the country come to 
Washington to remind us how important they are and when Members of 
Congress introduce resolutions and bills and give speeches in this 
Chamber letting them know how grateful we are for their service.

[[Page H3281]]

  I rise today partly to share in that gratitude. It is my privilege to 
represent the 19th Ward in Chicago where neighborhoods like Mount 
Greenwood and Beverly have long been home to huge chunks of the Chicago 
police force from rank-and-file beat cops to the Cook County Sheriff 
himself. I am also proud last March that I was able to bring home 
$372,000 in Federal funding for police equipment in the village of 
Alsip.
  I am grateful for all of the service from our law enforcement 
officers but for a bigger reason.
  We are a nation of laws, and we only survive as a nation of laws if 
those laws are consistently and predictably enforced, and it is our 
brothers and sisters in law enforcement who make sure that they are.
  I do find myself wondering how all these floor speeches this week 
look to them. How do all these pretty speeches sound to the local 
police chiefs who were pleading with us in 2020 to provide them with 
funding to shore up lost State and property tax revenue during the 
COVID downturn, who knew that they couldn't stay open without it, and 
they also know every single Republican voted against the American 
Rescue Plan that kept their officers paid?

  How do all these pretty speeches look to the Capitol Police officers 
who are defending us right now? How do they feel when these speeches 
come from the same lips of Members who still refer to people who 
assaulted the Capitol Police as ``political prisoners'' or in one case 
as a ``martyr''?
  How do all these pretty speeches sound to the FBI officers or local 
police who depend on the FBI to coordinate when crimes cross State 
lines when they come from the lips of Members of Congress who are 
regularly and consistently calling to defund the FBI?
  How do they sound to ATF officers who are forced--thanks to dumb laws 
led by my Republican colleagues--to spend hours every day tediously 
stripping personal identifying information from gun sales databases, 
making a mockery of the claim that it is people not guns that kill 
people?
  How do all these pretty speeches sound to the victims of financial 
fraud who depend on the NLRB to protect them from wage theft or the 
CFPB to protect them from junk fees or the SEC to protect them from 
financial crimes when the Republican Party is consistently trying to 
defund all three? After all, if somebody steals $1,000 from you, you 
are out $1,000. That is just as true if the crook is wearing a 
burglar's black mask or a huckster's white collar.
  On that subject, how do all these speeches sound to our Nation's 
criminals? You know who they are; they are the ones who every April 
misrepresent their income and assets and commit tax fraud because they 
trust that the Republicans are going to consistently block funding and 
resources for the law enforcement professionals at the Internal Revenue 
Service.
  Finally, how do you think all these speeches sound to E. Jean 
Carroll's rapist, the guy who was subsequently convicted in court of 
lying about that rape and still hasn't paid the $83 million fine 
imposed by law enforcement professionals for that lie, much less the 
$355 million fine imposed on him for unrelated financial fraud? He is 
the guy who most of you wouldn't trust with your retirement savings. He 
is the guy who none of you would trust for an evening alone with your 
teenage daughter, but who all of my Republican colleagues think should 
be the next President of the United States.
  Oscar Benavides, the former president of Peru, famously said: ``For 
my friends everything, for my enemies the law.'' That is not how a 
country of laws works but it is how fascism is built. It is not the way 
that you ensure that everybody has equal protection under the law, nor 
is it the way to honor the men and women who dedicate their life to 
that principle. I hope that next year on Police Week that isn't such a 
partisan idea.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair would remind Members to refrain 
from engaging in personalities toward presumptive nominees for the 
Office of President.

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