[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 18643]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  TRAGEDY AT PLANNED PARENTHOOD CLINIC

  Mr. REID. Madam President, our Nation is stunned following last 
week's wanton murders at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado 
Springs, CO. That heinous attack left three dead: a police officer, a 
mother of two children, and an Iraq war veteran. Nine others were 
wounded. It is sickening that these innocent victims were gunned down 
in cold blood in a medical clinic in the holiday season.
  More casualties were avoided by the quick and heroic action taken by 
responding law enforcement as well as by a courageous bystander named 
Ke'Arre Stewart, the Iraq war veteran I just mentioned, who heroically 
reentered the building to provide help. While he was doing that, he was 
killed--murdered. I can only imagine the heartbreaking anguish that the 
victims and their families are experiencing. I know it is of little 
comfort, but the Senate mourns with them. Our thoughts are with them, 
their families, and the first responders who brought an end to this 
brutal attack.
  But we in the Senate should not fail to see the context in which this 
vile assault took place. Last summer, a rightwing group began 
unleashing a series of heavily edited videos with unsubstantiated 
allegations. Since that time, Republicans in Congress have made it 
their mission to push these unsubstantiated allegations every chance 
they get. They are actually baseless.
  They also have made it their mission to defund Planned Parenthood, 
which would irreparably damage this health care provider's future. 
Republicans have insisted on votes to strip Planned Parenthood from its 
Federal funding on two different occasions. Neither was successful. But 
they are still trying.
  Republicans want to stop Medicaid reimbursement to Planned 
Parenthood, among other things. Republicans also believe in politically 
motivated investigations of Planned Parenthood. The Republican chairman 
of the House oversight committee, Congressman Jason Chaffetz, has 
admitted that he has uncovered no wrongdoing in his investigation of 
Planned Parenthood to this point.
  But always willing to play a bad hand, that has not stopped House 
Republicans from allocating $300,000 of taxpayer money to fund a new 
politically motivated special subcommittee dedicated to investigating 
Planned Parenthood. Republicans should not waste their time. I would 
hope that they give up before they match the millions of dollars--at 
last count it is more than $5 million--that they have wasted on the so-
called Benghazi ``let's get Secretary Clinton'' committee, another 
politically motivated and untimely fruitless attack.
  We should never forget that one in five American women will get care 
from a Planned Parenthood clinic at some point in their life. Cutting 
off access to important health care services such as breast and 
cervical screenings and contraception is bad for women and bad for the 
country.
  In the wake of this act of domestic terrorism, I commend Planned 
Parenthood for refusing to allow threats and violence to stand in the 
way of its work to ensure women have access to care. I hope everybody 
understands that I stand with Planned Parenthood. But we as leaders 
must be mindful of our words and actions. Whipping people into a frenzy 
of hate and anger while providing them with easy access to firearms has 
proven disastrous to our country.
  We have a responsibility as leaders to think very hard about what we 
say and do in this context and what the consequences are. We have a 
responsibility to fund ways to stop this violence. Democrats are 
working on reasonable gun safety proposals that will help ensure that 
firearms are kept out of the hands of people intent on committing 
violence. It is appalling how many times I have had to make this plea. 
This terrible event that took place in Colorado just a few days ago is 
already off the news. Why? Because it happens so often in America. It 
is appalling how many times I have had to make this plea, but I say to 
my Republican colleagues yet again: Join with us in passing sensible 
gun safety reforms. Help us keep guns away from people intent on using 
them to slaughter innocent people.
  First, we must do something to close to loopholes that allow FBI 
terror suspects and other unhinged individuals to legally buy AK-47s 
and other weapons. Right now a terror suspect, someone who is listed on 
the watch list, can walk into a gun store or a gun show and purchase 
sophisticated assault weapons. To leave that loophole unaddressed is 
sheer recklessness by congressional Republicans. Someone on the 
terrorist watch list can walk in and buy a gun, any gun they want. That 
is not good.
  We must also strengthen our Nation's background check system. We are 
failing to flag and prevent people who are mentally ill or who have 
violent motives from legally purchasing weapons. Improved background 
checks are essential in keeping guns out of the wrong hands. What we 
are saying is if someone is a felon, a criminal or crazy, they 
shouldn't be able to purchase a gun without a background check, and 
they should never be able to purchase a gun--period.
  Finally, we have to close loopholes that allow people to illegally 
traffic in firearms. What does this mean? Right now we have no laws in 
place to adequately prevent individuals from purchasing weapons--buy 
huge numbers of weapons. Then what do they do with them? Sell them at a 
great profit and transfer them to criminals.
  For example, a person with a clean background can purchase an 
unlimited number of guns and then turn around and sell them to a 
cartel, a gang or a terrorist organization with no threat of 
prosecution. Unfortunately, as in the past, Republicans are nowhere to 
be found when it comes to implementing these commonsense changes to our 
gun laws. For example, as to the Colorado Springs murders, did we hear 
a single Republican running for President of the United States stand 
and say: We have too many guns; can't we stop this?
  I haven't heard a single Republican Senator come to the floor and say 
something about this terrible event that took place. Instead, they are 
busy fear-mongering against Syrian refugees, those fleeing Assad and 
ISIS. We have a rigorous screening process for when we accept refugees. 
The refugees we are accepting are women, children, and older men with 
families. Less than 2 percent of the men who come as refugees from 
Syria or Iraq are of military age. The Department of Homeland Security 
has verified that not one of the 1,800 Syrian refugees already admitted 
to the United States has a single confirmed tie to terrorism, but in 
spite of all the facts, Republicans would focus their attention on 
refugees and ignore the problem we have with gun violence in America.
  Republicans would have Americans believe Syrian refugees are the 
preeminent threat to our national security, and meanwhile the 
Republican Congress is doing nothing to curb our Nation's gun violence. 
It is a sad commentary on Republicans that they are more concerned 
about keeping Syrian refugees out of America than they are about 
keeping guns out of the hands of terrorists, those who are mentally 
ill, and those who are criminals.

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