[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8471-8473]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 JUSTICE AND MENTAL HEALTH COLLABORATION ACT OF 2013--MOTION TO PROCEED

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 92, S. 
162, which is the Franken Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime 
Reduction Act.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will report the motion.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 92, S. 162, a bill to 
     reauthorize and improve the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment 
     and Crime Reduction Act of 2004.


                                schedule

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, following my remarks and those of the 
Republican leader, if any, the Senate will be in a period of morning 
business until 5:30 p.m. The time from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. will be 
equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their 
designees. The Senate will recess from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. to allow 
for the weekly caucus meetings. At 5:30 p.m. there will be at least two 
rollcall votes: confirmation of the Costa nomination to be a U.S. 
circuit judge and a cloture vote on the Fischer nomination to be a 
member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.


                brown v. board of education anniversary

  Mr. President, we hear a lot--and have for many years--about the 
Brown v. Board of Education case, but what was that all about? Well, it 
was about a dad and a mom who decided they could no longer just go 
along; they had to try to do something to take care of their little 7-
year-old girl Linda. In the 1950s this family lived in Topeka, KS, and 
the State was racially segregated. Little Black boys and girls went one 
place to school; little White boys and girls went someplace else. But 
it was clear where the little Black boys and girls went to school the 
schools were not very good; where the little White boys and girls went 
the schools were pretty good--certainly better than where the Black 
boys and girls went.
  But a courageous father named Oliver Brown was determined to give his 
little third grader Linda a fair shot at a good education. These were 
long odds he took. Mr. Brown tried unsuccessfully to enroll his 
daughter Linda in the neighborhood all-White elementary school, the 
school that was close by. But the doors of that school were shut to 
little Linda because she was an African American--because of the color 
of her skin. It had nothing to do with her intellect; it had everything 
to do with the color of her skin.
  She was forced to walk--a little 7-year-old girl, a third grader--
seven or eight blocks to a bus stop where she waited for a bus to take 
her to an all-Black elementary school some distance away.
  Rather than accept the status quo, the Browns--and they got some 
other neighbors to join them--brought a civil case against the Topeka 
school board challenging the school district's segregation policy.
  This case took a long time to work up to the U.S. Supreme Court, but 
it got there. This case is now commonly known as Brown v. Board of 
Education. As I said, it was eventually argued before the U.S. Supreme 
Court.
  The plaintiffs were represented by the NAACP and a young lawyer by 
the name of Thurgood Marshall. I just finished a stunning book about 
this man. It is called ``Devil in the Grove,'' and for anyone within 
the sound of my voice, I would recommend they read this book. It tells 
a lot about Thurgood Marshall and the struggles he went through. But it 
also talks about the South and what he had to put up with--death 
threats, accommodations. He had to stay at other people's homes. Even 
though he would go to a courthouse, and he would have to spend weeks in 
that town, he could not get a room nearby. He had to go live with an 
African-American family during that period of time. It is a good book, 
and it talks about how courageous the Brown family would have to be to 
do what they did: to challenge the status quo.
  In rendering the decision, the U.S. Supreme Court--not in a 5-4 
decision, not in a 7-2 decision, but in a unanimous decision--under the 
leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren, unanimously held that a 
racially segregated public school was ``inherently unequal,'' and they 
overturned--some say half a century--what America had been for a long 
time. They changed it. We all know it did not change like that, but it 
changed.
  I had the good fortune last night--I got home fairly early, 7 
o'clock--and watched the news. Every news show talked about the 60th 
anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, which occurred last 
Saturday. They interviewed everyone, and even though we have a long way 
to go, everyone acknowledged that decision changed America. The status 
quo of separate but equal in our Nation's public schools was struck 
down. It was gone--not in a decision, I repeat, that was close but 
unanimous. We need more of those. We need more collegiality in the 
Supreme Court, not only here in the U.S. Senate but in the Supreme 
Court, because after that was struck down, little kids such as Linda

[[Page 8472]]

Brown were able to attend class with little White boys and girls.
  This past Saturday marked the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court's 
decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
  My children are not little kids anymore, but in Nevada, we had 
segregation. I can remember a man I served with in the State 
legislature. His name was Woodrow Wilson, an African American. He told 
me about Las Vegas and taking his children to a lunch counter that was 
in a drugstore. They told him to leave, that he could not eat there. 
That is Las Vegas; that is not Mississippi.
  So things changed in Nevada. When my children were young, schools 
were not really segregated as I just described what was going on in 
Kansas, but they still had some issues. How it was handled in Nevada--
let's see if I can remember the grade--yes, for all sixth graders, 
White kids were bused to an African-American community to go to school 
for 1 year of their school career, but the rest of the time the Black 
kids were bused. So for 1 year White kids were bused; the rest of the 
time Black kids were bused. That is gone now. But it was handled 
differently. Was what took place with my two oldest children good? No. 
But it was better than it used to be.
  After six decades, our Nation still owes a debt to those few brave 
individuals who stood against racial segregation in American schools, 
and the lawyer there was a man by the name of Thurgood Marshall. I 
never had the pleasure and honor of meeting this man when he was on the 
Supreme Court, but, boy, what a stalwart he was. And that book was so 
good. Again, I repeat, it is called ``Devil in the Grove.'' It is 
focused mainly on Florida and what went on in Florida--what a bad 
situation there, created by lots of people but principally one sheriff.
  The Brown family, their fellow plaintiffs, the legal teams, and the 
nine Supreme Court Justices all refused to let inequality go 
unchallenged.
  For the Browns, it was difficult, it was scary, and it was courageous 
to pursue legal recourse in the face of insults, slanders, and threats. 
But the Brown family and their fellow plaintiffs stood firm in the face 
of their opposition. Their legal teams did not waiver, led by Thurgood 
Marshall, and their supporters had their backs from the beginning to 
the end.
  These parents could have given up, and I am sure there are stories 
that are untold where parents did give up. But here the Browns knew it 
was their responsibility to fight for justice. There was nothing given 
when they started this. In fact, the odds were stacked against them.
  Today, along with my Senate colleagues, I express my gratitude for 
the men, women, and children whose iconic efforts helped bring racial 
segregation to a screeching halt. As I have said before, today our 
Nation is still far from perfect, and, sadly, we still see racism rear 
its ugly head. We saw what happened in Nevada very recently where a man 
said that African Americans were better off with slavery. Some people 
still believe such things. But no one can dispute that we are better 
off because of Brown v. Board of Education.
  It is my hope we will recognize and support those other children like 
little Linda Brown in doing our part to equally and fairly look at what 
is going on and do our part to defend equality and fairness in our 
society. As we do that, we will complete the unfinished work of Brown 
v. Board of Education.


                              nominations

  Mr. President, I want to briefly call attention to something that I 
think is extremely important for our country and for the Senate.
  Last week we had all the police officers from Nevada, New Jersey, 
came from all over the country, to celebrate National Police Week, to 
express our appreciation for the crime-fighting men and women who 
protect our families every day. They had an honor roll there of people 
in our country who were killed in the line of duty as police officers.
  While the rest of America honored our Nation's police officers, the 
U.S. Senate failed to do its part in supporting law enforcement.
  For months--for months--we have struggled to get nominations done.
  The chief law enforcement officer of our country is Eric Holder. He 
is the Attorney General of the United States. He has awesome 
responsibility. Yesterday we saw that seven Chinese military officers 
were indicted for hacking into different businesses to steal their 
trade secrets. A day rarely goes by where we don't see the Justice 
Department announcing something they have done for the good of our 
country. A big bank was fined $2.5 billion yesterday for doing things 
that were criminally done in our country--hiding money that people were 
putting into banks so they wouldn't have to pay taxes on them. The 
Justice Department is so important to the integrity of our Nation, but 
we have about 140 nominations that have been stalled by the Republican 
obstruction.
  We changed the rules in the Senate. We are getting our judicial 
nominations done. These good men and women will serve a lifetime in 
their jobs. They were blocked, and now we have a way to get them done. 
But rather than live up to those responsibilities, Republicans are 
pouting. They are pouting. They are saying: Oh, they changed the rules 
to get these judges done, so we are going to agree to nothing--things 
we used to do as a matter of fact. I can remember when I was the whip 
here and I did work for Senator Daschle, who was the leader. One 
evening, by consent, we did 70 nominations just like that, walked out 
with a consent agreement and approved them. That is the way we used to 
always do it until President Obama was elected. They have done 
everything they can to make it so that this man's job is very 
difficult. Everyone can try to figure out why they have done it, but 
they have done it. They have opposed everything this good man has tried 
to do.
  Right now, if you can imagine this, we have three people--it is very 
important--who want to be U.S. attorneys in New Mexico, Louisiana, and 
Connecticut. These are extremely important jobs, fulfilling those 
responsibilities. But they can't fulfill those responsibilities because 
they are being held up by Republicans. These are jobs that were never 
held up in the past. These are people who are prosecuting crimes in the 
States of New Mexico, Louisiana, and Connecticut, but they are being 
held up. Why? For no good reason. These are all good men and women.
  The U.S. attorneys are our Nation's top prosecutors for drug 
trafficking, bank robbery, counterfeiting. When I practiced law, it was 
kind of a joke: What are they trying to do--make a Federal case out of 
it?
  Yes.
  Why do they say that? Because Federal cases are good cases. They are 
investigated by the FBI and other agencies, and they bring these cases 
to the U.S. attorney, and they make a Federal case out of them. But 
they are not making Federal cases out of those cases in New Mexico, 
Louisiana, and Connecticut. Everyone who is watching what I say today, 
that is a sham.
  The reason I mentioned the Attorney General, we have two Assistant 
Attorneys General they are holding up. Eric Holder called me yesterday 
and said: Is there anything that can be done to help me?
  Again, I will have to file cloture on these. This is how it works, 
everybody: I file cloture, we get cloture, and they have 30 hours to 
stand around and do nothing. When 30 hours is over we finally get a 
vote. They get 30 hours for a circuit court judge, Supreme Court 
Justice, and Cabinet officer. For U.S. attorneys and assistant U.S. 
attorneys, they get 8 hours--an arbitrary number.
  I don't plan on changing the rules again, but how much longer can we 
put up with this? Even law enforcement officers, as I have indicated, 
are held up for no reason. We don't hear people giving speeches about 
what horrible people the President selected to be U.S. attorney in 
Connecticut, Louisiana, and New Mexico--not a word. They just hide 
behind their obstruction.
  I ought to mention that we have about 40 ambassadors they have held 
up. These are not political appointments; these are career ambassadors 
who have worked their whole lives to

[[Page 8473]]

have one of these jobs where they represent our country. We have major 
countries where they have held up ambassadors: 25 percent of all 
African countries, no ambassadors; Peru; and on and on with all of the 
things that are being done--not for the betterment of our country.
  We have the Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and 
Natural Resources Division. One would think that is kind of important 
with the fires burning in the West and the number of fires caused by 
malicious acts.
  Is it right that we have all this degradation of our environment and 
there is nobody to enforce the law? I know the Koch brothers want no 
environmental protection. They say that, so maybe they are at the beck 
and call of the Koch brothers, who don't want these laws enforced.
  The U.S. Department of Justice is the crime-fighting arm of our 
government, and they should not be handcuffed by not having the people 
to allow the Attorney General to have help with his responsibilities. 
It is hard to fathom that the work of Attorney General Eric Holder is 
being recklessly hindered by Republican obstruction.
  It used to be easy for me to say ``I call on my Republican colleagues 
to stop it,'' but they haven't stopped it for 5\1/2\ years. It is a 
shame. I would at least hope they could give our Nation's law 
enforcement all the tools they need to protect us.


                       Reservation of Leader Time

  Mr. REID. Would the Chair announce the business of the day.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, 
leadership time is reserved.

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