Thin Blue Line Act

Madam President, I rise today to discuss yet another one of the consequences of this President's failed policies, and that is out-of-control crime.

Many Democrats have championed a soft-on-crime agenda that has contributed to soaring crime rates.

According to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, since 2019, violent crime is up 26 percent, aggravated assault is up 34 percent, and homicides are up a staggering 43 percent. This is not only unacceptable, it is terrifying. Repeated calls to defund the police, for open borders, and reduced sentencing or bail requirements have led to a crime increase so overwhelming that America's fear regarding crime in their communities is at a 50-year high.

Though President Biden bears ultimate responsibility here, in many ways he is following the direction of his party when it comes to crime. We have seen a lack of leadership from the White House, an overly politicized Department of Justice, and district attorneys who refuse to prosecute crimes.

The Biden administration has insisted on nominating radical, soft-on- crime advocates to Federal judgeships. While this is an utter disregard for law and order, it is deeply concerning, and it is a trend that we have seen over the last 2 years.

Despite previous efforts to defund the police, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are now walking back their claims that less law enforcement makes us safer. As many Democrat-led cities across the country heeded these calls, the United States experienced the biggest rise in murder since the start of national recordkeeping in 1960.

On top of this, we are experiencing record numbers of police officers who are quitting their profession or they are heading for retirement. Seattle has lost more than one-quarter of its police force in the last 2\1/2\ years. Just a short drive from here in DC, in Fairfax County, VA, their police chief declared a personnel emergency and staff shortage last June and installed mandatory overtime to keep their communities protected. Small communities across this country have seen their entire police force quit all at once. And perhaps very alarming, the New York City Police Department saw 3,701 police officers retire or resign in 2022. That is the most since 9/11.

My small State of West Virginia, my home State, is not exempt from these challenges as well. In 2021, the Morgantown Police Department began dealing with a 20-percent reduction in staffing. Our police chief said this was due to the danger associated with being an officer and an overall growing stigma of officers being aggressive or biased. The West Virginia University Police Department is experiencing a similar shortage, with a turnover rate that is still much higher than it was previous to the pandemic.

I live in Charleston, WV. The Charleston Police Department has been offering large financial incentives to attract officers they desperately need. And the pride of West Virginia, our West Virginia State Police, continues to struggle to keep our State troopers.

We rely on our police for a multitude of services and protection, and in this era of out-of-control crime, we cannot afford to see these shortages continue.

On top of all this, the border crisis continues to fuel the fire of crime and spread illicit narcotics in our communities. Last year, we seized almost 15,000 pounds of fentanyl at our border. Well, in this first quarter, we have already seized 12,500 pounds just this fiscal year. That is only in a quarter of a year.

I see the ramifications of Biden's border crisis in my State, which is disproportionately impacted by the fentanyl and addiction crisis. In 2022, we sadly lost 1,135 West Virginians to overdoses. We have the highest rate of overdose deaths per capita of any State in the Union. There were 6,916 emergency room visits related to overdoses, with our EMS teams responding to another 9,205 suspected overdose calls.

Last week, in Wheeling, WV, local prosecutors indicted drug traffickers who served as ``one of the largest suppliers of illicit substances to West Virginia,'' according to our U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District. And I congratulate Bill Ihlenfeld, who is the U.S. attorney in that office.

There was an original drug bust last October that recovered approximately 75 pounds of cocaine, 19 pounds of methamphetamine, and 5 pounds of fentanyl, which is very lethal in very small doses. Investigators found that these traffickers had drugs shipped from the U.S.-Mexico border to Ohio via tractor-trailer or they used cash payments to give to people who flew from California to the Pittsburgh International Airport. The connection between the crisis at our border and the drug epidemic we are seeing at home doesn't get any clearer than that.

Here in our Nation's Capital, amid surging violent crime and police shortages, DC's City Council is attempting a dangerous and irresponsible rewrite of their criminal code. Reducing the penalties for violent crimes--carjackings, robberies, and even homicides--as these numbers rise is incredibly tone deaf to local calls for increased safety and policing. This is happening right in the President's backyard.

So I commend my colleague Senator Bill Hagerty from Tennessee for introducing a resolution of disapproval to block the DC City Council's dangerous and irresponsible Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022 from taking effect. The DC City Council's legislation is the complete opposite of what we need to control this out-of-control crime.

While I have been talking about concerns for the types of crimes we can see, there are also increasing threats from crimes that could be described as unseen. These threats emphasize the vulnerability of our children as recent years have pushed their lives into an increasingly digital space. Because of the pandemic, children are learning digitally and have more access to devices than ever before, putting them at an increased risk for luring, grooming, and exploitation.

The data here is incredibly disturbing. One in twenty children will experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of 18. That statistic increases for young girls, with one in five experiencing some form of sexual abuse before the age of 18. Ninety percent of child abuse victims know their abusers, and 60 percent of child sexual abuse victims never tell anyone.

Well, I am a mother of three and a grandmother of eight now, and this is incredibly upsetting to me. We must safeguard our children from things that no child should ever have to experience.

So I would tell President Biden: I hope these statistics are a wake- up call.

Now more than ever, American families are asking for law and order in their communities and peace of mind in their neighborhoods. We as Republicans stand ready to continue our push for solutions that make our country safer and a stronger place to live.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to let these comments be made before the vote, and I will keep them brief.

Madam President, yesterday, I spoke about a new law passed by the DC City Council. This law lowers penalties for crimes like carjacking and robbery. Thankfully, Congress is stepping in to stop this legislation.

DC, Washington here, should be an example of our American ideals. Sadly, it is becoming an example of the crime we are experiencing across the country in our larger cities. In Chicago, the Midwest, there are new records being broken in the wrong way each week, in New York, and even in places like my State capital of Indianapolis. It should be a wake-up call to crack down. Yet city governments keep going the other way.

The first priority of any government should be the safety of its citizens, especially at the local level, where you live each day. We know a big part of this is not about the laws we have. We have a lot of laws on the books. They are not enforced. In my State capital of Indianapolis, I have a prosecutor who will not enforce those laws, and even in the heart of our country, the Midwest, you have the same issue.

I guess the most disturbing part of all of this is the hatred for our police. They place their safety at hazard to protect ours. Too often, they pay the ultimate price in doing so.

(The remarks of Mr. BRAUN pertaining to the introduction of S. 459 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')

Madam President, we lost a Hoosier recently who spent 7 years fighting ALS. I was proud here, along with Senator Coons, to start the ALS Caucus. ALS is one of those diseases, when you are diagnosed with it, for which there is not a very good prognosis--3 to 4 years, maybe, sometimes.

Corey Polen from Indiana was able to stretch it out to 7 years and fought valiantly along the way. He was involved in trying to take his cause and help others. Currently, there is no cure, and there is severely limited access to treatment options.

Since I have been here, I have been trying to reform healthcare in general. That is a task when you have one side of the aisle that doesn't think there is anything to do there or isn't interested in it and the other side maybe wanting to have more government when I think we need to reform it in an underlying way and make it more transparent, more competitive, and remove barriers to entry so that you have doctors and nurses wanting to come into the profession.

Let's take this commonsense part of it. This is a disease, along with several other diseases, for which, once you are diagnosed, you do not have time, and you are beset by a cumbersome process that keeps people from getting into and even staying in treatment. We need to fix that to where, through the Promising Pathway Act, which I have had out there and which is gaining stride, we need to make an exception for those ailments that have treatments in progress and where the individuals suffering from them are willing to take the risk. They want to do that because there is no other option, especially when there are promising treatments that you are working with.

In Corey's case, his journey began in October 2015. He was hiking with his wife Jennifer in Arizona. On that hike, he kind of hurt his ankle and noticed more. He then returned to his hometown and wanted to look into it further. That is when he got that bleak diagnosis.

All along the journey, as his condition was getting worse, he was out there to help others with it. His main goal for us here in Congress was for us to get something like the Promising Pathway Act across the finish line, which would give hope to him and to all of the others with similar diseases who are frustrated by the fact that we can't move quickly enough, especially when there is stuff in the works that looks like it is going to be someday, if not a cure, at least a mitigation to the disease. We weren't able to get that done.

I would ask my fellow Senators and someone else in the House to carry it. We need to get this across the finish line. A panel of FDA advisers voted 7 to 2 that there was enough evidence to do something different. That gave hope to people like Corey and others that something would get done, but it hasn't happened. We have this under our own control to get it done, and it is well past time to get it done.

I have been here going on now into my fifth year, and we have been dragging our feet. I am going to roll up my sleeves and get it done, and we are going to keep pursuing this effort through our ALS Caucus. Senator Coons and I have done it, and we have made headway. But why wouldn't we, when we have been dawdling with this issue for so long, not give the benefit of the doubt to treatments that are promising and get this across the finish line for these individuals who have no other hope but for us to get it done?

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I rise to introduce the bipartisan Outdoors for All Act. This legislation would ensure that access to local parks and outdoor recreation is equitable and available to all.

The Outdoors for All Act would codify and strengthen the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program at the Interior Department, which provides grants to build new outdoor recreation spaces, improve existing parks, and form connections between underserved, urban communities and the outdoors.

It specifically invests in parks and open spaces in areas where the majority of Americans live. Any single urban area or two adjacent urban areas with a population of at least 25,000 can qualify for grants, which can benefit residents in all 50 States.

These grants would fund projects in park-poor, urban communities, and the bill would require the National Park Service to prioritize projects that support underserved communities, provide job-training to youth, and leverage resources through public-private partnerships.

As our cities grow and the effects of climate change intensify, this bill will increase equitable access to the many benefits of local parks, from job creation, to shade and tree cover, the reduction of the urban heat island effect, and clean air.

Nationwide, 100 million people, including 28 million children, do not have a park within a half-mile of home. That is almost one-third of America.

Additionally, in the 100 most populated cities, neighborhoods where most residents identify as Black, Latino, American Indian/Alaska Native, or Asian American and Pacific Islander have access to an average of 44 percent less park acreage than predominantly White neighborhoods.

For example, in Los Angeles, low-income communities and communities of color lack equal access to parks--a Los Angeles County survey found that Compton reported only 0.6 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents, in contrast to Malibu, which has 55.5 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents.

This bill would address this staggering inequity in Los Angeles and across the country and make equity and justice a key focus of park investment and planning.

I thank Senator Collins for introducing this legislation with me in the Senate and Congresswoman Barragan and Congressman Turner for leading this effort in the House of Representatives.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass the Outdoors for All Act soon as possible.

Madam President, Indiana has lost several officers in the line of duty in the last 2 years, like Terre Haute Officer Greg Ferency and Richmond Officer Seara Burton.

I would like to say a few words about Elwood Police Officer Noah Shahnavaz, who was killed in the line of duty last year in a little town in Indiana. He was only 24 years old. He was shot during a routine traffic stop by a violent career criminal who should have been behind bars. His parents, Laurie and Matt, remembered their son to my office with these words:

All that Noah ever wanted to do is help others. Society has

been robbed of the many positive impacts he would have had on

our world.

When a police officer is killed in the line of duty, it sends a shock wave through the community, and it is happening in far too many places.

I decided after his death that I wanted to take the lead in reintroducing the Thin Blue Line Act. This bill would make targeting police officers an aggravating factor in favor of the maximum sentence. It has already passed through the House of Representatives once before. We need to do it again in this Congress and get it through the Senate as well.

Supporting our police shouldn't be a partisan issue. This law wouldn't apply in every case, but it would make criminals think twice before targeting our police. We have to do everything we can to protect those who protect us. The one thing we could do to fight back against crime is to support those on the frontline. We need to give them the resources they need and send a clear message to those who wish to do them harm: If you target a police officer, you are going to pay the highest price possible.

We need to get that done.

Madam President, Indiana has lost several officers in the line of duty in the last 2 years, like Terre Haute Officer Greg Ferency and Richmond Officer Seara Burton.

I would like to say a few words about Elwood Police Officer Noah Shahnavaz, who was killed in the line of duty last year in a little town in Indiana. He was only 24 years old. He was shot during a routine traffic stop by a violent career criminal who should have been behind bars. His parents, Laurie and Matt, remembered their son to my office with these words:

All that Noah ever wanted to do is help others. Society has

been robbed of the many positive impacts he would have had on

our world.

When a police officer is killed in the line of duty, it sends a shock wave through the community, and it is happening in far too many places.

I decided after his death that I wanted to take the lead in reintroducing the Thin Blue Line Act. This bill would make targeting police officers an aggravating factor in favor of the maximum sentence. It has already passed through the House of Representatives once before. We need to do it again in this Congress and get it through the Senate as well.

Supporting our police shouldn't be a partisan issue. This law wouldn't apply in every case, but it would make criminals think twice before targeting our police. We have to do everything we can to protect those who protect us. The one thing we could do to fight back against crime is to support those on the frontline. We need to give them the resources they need and send a clear message to those who wish to do them harm: If you target a police officer, you are going to pay the highest price possible.

We need to get that done.