Floor Statements

I send a cloture motion to the desk.

I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 54.

I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

The question is on agreeing to the motion.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 68.

I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 58.

I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 34, S. 914.

I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Finally, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, April 22, be waived.

Thank you.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination: Calendar No. 60; that the nomination be confirmed; that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening or debate; that no further motions be in order to the nomination; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action; and that the Senate resume legislative section.

Mr. President, yesterday, a jury of former police officer Derek Chauvin's peers determined that he was guilty of murdering George Floyd, confirming what was plain to the millions of Americans who watched his murder on video--9\1/2\ excruciating minutes that documented the senseless and unnecessary loss of one man's life in broad daylight.

Our country was forever changed by the horrendous video of Derek Chauvin killing Mr. Floyd. His searing final words, screaming for air, calling for his mother, are etched in our memory. This guilty verdict serves as an official proclamation of what so many of us have known for nearly a year: George Floyd was murdered by an officer who was sworn to protect and to serve but who, obviously, didn't.

The brutality of George Floyd's murder, yet another in a seemingly endless string of tragedies, sparked a summer of protest unlike any we have seen in American history, elevating a long-building movement for more justice in policing. Americans of every age, color, and creed took to the streets in peaceful protest--from Minneapolis to Maine and Los Angeles to Atlanta, and including in my own home city of New York. A community of global citizens would soon join them in protest. In foreign capitals--from Rome, Paris, and London to Amsterdam, Berlin, and Mexico City--the name George Floyd would echo through the public square. This was not only a fight for justice but a fight against the mistreatment, discrimination, and outright bigotry that Black men and women suffer at the hands of State power, not just here in America but around the globe.

The death of George Floyd provoked such a reaction because folks in those

communities knew a George Floyd of their own. Names of friends and colleagues who were tragically killed or suffered the brutal sting of racism sprang to their tongues. They still do.

Philando Castile, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Daniel Prude, Sandra Bland--each circumstance different, the underlying tragedy much the same. Their names, and countless others, serve as a reminder that a single verdict in a single trial will never be enough.

It wasn't long ago that excessive force by police was never caught on iPhones or body cameras. It was out of sight and often beyond the reach of the law, which gave almost reflexive deference to police officers who were brought to trial, if they were ever brought to trial.

So this was an important event for the American justice system. Not only were the events concerning George Floyd caught on camera, but the offending officer was tried and convicted in a court of law. Let it serve as the proper deterrent--a deterrent that should have existed long ago--to the kind of egregious misconduct that led to George Floyd's death.

However, and most certainly, we should not mistake a guilty verdict in this case as evidence that the persistent problem of police misconduct has been solved or that the divide between law enforcement and so many of the communities they serve has been bridged. It has not.

We must remain diligent in our efforts to bring meaningful change to police departments across the country, to reform practices and training, and the legal protections that grant too great a shield to police officers guilty of misconduct.

We also must remain diligent in striving to root out the racial bias in our society: in our healthcare system, in jobs, in housing, in the economy, in the boardroom and at the ballot box, on our streets, and in our schools.

This goes way beyond party or political faction. Racism strikes at the very core of this country. Justice--true justice--will not come until we finally banish the ancient poison of racism from the American soul.

The Senate will continue that work as we strive to ensure that George Floyd's tragic death will not be in vain. We will not rest until the Senate passes strong legislation to end this systemic bias in law enforcement.

Mr. President, now on a related subject, part of that effort, though modest, is installing committed, experienced, compassionate civil rights leaders in positions of power in the Justice Department, our Nation's top law enforcement Agency. It just so happens that, today, the Senate will vote on the confirmation of Ms. Vanita Gupta to be the next Associate Attorney General.

Not only is Ms. Gupta the first woman of color to ever be nominated to the position, she is the first civil rights attorney ever to be nominated to the position--the third ranking official in the Justice Department. That is shocking, really. We never have had a former civil rights attorney serving in such a position of prominence at the Justice Department. In that sense alone, Ms. Gupta would bring a long overdue perspective to our Federal law enforcement Agency.

Just to give you a sense of Ms. Gupta's commitment to civil rights and racial equity, in her very first case after law school, she won the release of several African Americans who had been wrongly convicted by all-White juries in Texas. Her clients later won a full pardon from Texas Governor Rick Perry.

At a time when our country needs to make strides against racial injustice, how can we not install one of the Nation's top civil rights lawyers at the Department of Justice? How can our colleagues not rise to the occasion--our colleagues on the other side of the aisle--and vote for her? I am so, so troubled by the fact that they are virtually unanimously against such a fine person who is needed so much at this time.

Yes, but, unfortunately, Ms. Gupta might be the first nominee in this Congress where the vote falls entirely down on party lines. I hope it doesn't come to that. The effort to elevate highly qualified civil rights attorneys like Ms. Gupta should be bipartisan.

I urge my colleagues--all of them, and particularly my friends on the other side of the aisle--to vote in favor of Ms. Gupta's nomination today.