[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9361]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  GENESIS WITH REVELATIONS YET TO COME

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Al Green) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, it is always a preeminent 
privilege to stand in the well of the House of Representatives to 
advocate on behalf of my constituents in the Ninth Congressional 
District of Texas, but it is also a greater honor to advocate on behalf 
of the American people. I contend that no one could have predicted that 
I would have had this great opportunity at my birth, and I am always 
grateful to have it, and I want people to know that I appreciate it 
greatly.
  Mr. Speaker, last night, the House of Representatives passed a 
bipartisan piece of legislation, H. Res. 295. This is a resolution that 
would encourage law enforcement agencies to use body cameras. It passed 
overwhelmingly, and I am here today to express my gratitude to the many 
Members who supported this piece of legislation.
  I would like to start with the leadership. I am honored that the 
leadership supported it because, without the support of leadership, 
legislation does not come to the floor.
  Mr. Boehner, I am grateful that you supported and allowed it to come 
to the floor.
  Ms. Pelosi, I am grateful that you supported and allowed it to come 
to the floor.
  Mr. Hoyer, I am honored that we had the opportunity to visit with you 
about it as well as with other members of leadership, including Mr. 
Boehner, and that you allowed it to come to the floor.
  I also want to mention the chair of the Judiciary Committee, Mr. 
Goodlatte. He allowed us to visit with him about this legislation. We 
are grateful that he participated in the process and allowed it to come 
to the floor.
  I am also especially honored to mention Mr. Conyers, the sage of the 
House of Representatives, the dean of the House of Representatives, and 
I am grateful that he has been understanding and has given us the 
opportunity to have this piece of legislation come to the floor in the 
form of a resolution.
  There were Members who supported this, and they were cosponsors. I 
have to mention my very dear friend Mr. Cleaver. I will say candidly 
that, without him, we wouldn't have been able to have succeeded. He has 
been a partner with me on this legislation, and we have worked through 
the entirety of the process.
  I will mention Mr. Ted Poe from Texas. He and I were lawyers 
together, and we were judges together. He was the first person to 
actually sign onto the resolution, and that meant something to have his 
support.
  Mr. Poe, I am grateful that you signed on as the first original 
cosponsor, and my prayer is that this piece of legislation is something 
that you will be proud of in the years to come.
  Mr. Luetkemeyer signed onto it, Mr. Lacy Clay, Mr. Yoder, and Ms. 
Clarke--all persons who were original cosponsors of the legislation. I 
am grateful that they chose to allow their names to be associated with 
it, and I am grateful to all of the Members of the House of 
Representatives who voted for it, some 421 Members.
  Let me now just focus on the legislation for just a moment and remind 
everybody that this, in a metaphorical sense, is not the end; it is the 
beginning. In a metaphorical sense, it is not the closing argument as 
we might have in a trial; it is the opening statement. As a Christian, 
in a metaphorical sense, this is Genesis; it is not Revelation. There 
are many other things to come. In fact, we have a piece of 
legislation--the CAM TIP Act--that is currently pending before the 
House, and my hope is that we will get some additional cosponsors on 
that piece of legislation.
  As for this piece of legislation, let me announce that what it does 
is to simply provide encouragement to law enforcement agencies to know 
that the consensus of the House of Representatives is that you have 
body cameras. We ask that you please consider the rationale for body 
cameras.
  One, transparency. This means that there won't be disputes about what 
happened. With cameras, you can still have some disputes. This is not a 
panacea; it will not cure all that ails some of our concerns. Yet it 
does provide some empirical evidence, empirical evidence that we would 
not acquire otherwise because of the contentions that can be at odds 
with each other about facts. By the way, as a judge, I know that you 
can have persons with the best of intentions who can see the same facts 
and come away with different conclusions as to what occurred. This 
provides the additional transparency.
  It also provides an opportunity for us to allow this evidence to go 
into court. It is not enough for the public to see what is going on. 
Those who serve as jurors will have an opportunity to see what happened 
and base their decisions on more than what one person says as opposed 
to what another person says.
  I am proud to tell you that the piece of legislation will provide an 
opportunity for people to adjust their behavior. A wonderful thing can 
happen when cameras are on. People will know that they are being 
watched, and they can adjust their behavior.
  I am so honored that the legislation has passed, and I am grateful 
for the opportunity to speak this morning. I thank those who were 
supportive of it. This is the genesis. The revelations are yet to come.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their 
remarks to the Chair and not to other Members.

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