Mr. President, I come to the floor today to recognize the men and women of law enforcement across this Nation in the annual police week ceremonies. From last night’s candlelight vigil to tomorrow’s wreath-laying ceremony, we here in the Capitol offer our gratitude, our thanks, and our support to the men and women of law enforcement and their families.
I wish to comment for a few moments today on how difficult it was earlier today to be a Member of this body as two different Senators, who are strong supporters of law enforcement, came to this floor in an attempt to move forward important pieces of legislation only to have that effort blocked.
Earlier today Senator Patrick Leahy, the President pro tempore and the chair of the Judiciary Committee, came to the floor to seek unanimous consent to move forward the Federal bulletproof vest partnership reauthorization bill that came out of the Judiciary Committee, and Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland came to the floor to seek unanimous consent to move forward with the bipartisan Blue Alert bill. I am a cosponsor of both bills. Both have very broad support within the law enforcement community, and both are bipartisan bills. Yet, in each case, one Senator–one Senator–objected to our proceeding to consideration of these bills.
I want to share with those of us here in the Chamber that earlier today, at a hearing in the Judiciary Committee considering again the value and the impact of the Federal bulletproof vest partnership, we had a chance to hear from Officer Ann Carrizales from Texas, who gave riveting, moving testimony about how a bulletproof vest, provided to her by her small-town department in Texas, saved her life when she was shot at point-blank range in a routine traffic stop very early in the morning. Today her husband would be a widower and her daughter an orphan were it not for this vital Federal-State-local partnership that has provided more than 1 million bulletproof vests over the many years it has enjoyed broad bipartisan support.
With us this morning were two Delaware Capitol police officers, Sergeant Mike Manley and Corporal Steve Rinehart. With them as well was Chief Horsman of the capitol police department. Both of these brave officers were on duty in the lobby of the New Castle County Courthouse last year when a gunman entered the chamber and started firing at random. They were both shot, and they both survived because of bulletproof vests provided to them in part through this Federal-State partnership.
We cannot let down the men and women of law enforcement. We should not let partisan politics and ideology in this Chamber prevent us from moving forward in a bipartisan way to deliver the officer-safety investments and improvements that have already cleared the Judiciary Committee, that already have bipartisan support from both sides of the aisle, and allow one individual to continue to hold up these important bills.
It is my call to my colleagues that we work tirelessly together to make sure we overcome this needless obstruction and move forward this week to honor the service and sacrifice of those 268 law enforcement officers whose names have been added to the memorial this year and the hundreds of thousands of others who even today, even tonight, will be on patrol keeping America safe.