Improving Law Enforcement Officer Safety and Wellness Through Data Act of 2024
Floor Speech
Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I think it bears repeating, in light of that extraordinary commentary, that right here in the District of Columbia, to the affliction of 700,000, roughly, local citizens and the 19 million who visit annually, exactly the kind of radical politicization that would say this reporting bill is beyond the pale and that you have to have the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. That is exactly what they did in D.C. That is exactly what they have done to lead to citizen-led recall petitions on two D.C. councilmembers, what they have done to see carjackings explode in ways that no one ever thought possible, to have a 20-year record of homicides last year, and to have one D.C. councilmember still touting that he managed, because of the budget politics, to take millions and millions out of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department so that their force has declined from 4,000 by 600 or more and continues to decline 3 years into the phenomenon.
How far will ideology go to take us beyond common sense to a point we can't recover? Let's do a little reporting bill and find out the details. Let's get a rich dataset about this scourge that we see across the Nation precipitated and encouraged by those who still cannot bring themselves to say that law enforcement officers are a needed quantity, that the Nation must have them, that law and order must prevail in order for the country to succeed.
How could we have come to a point in the country where that cannot be conceded readily by everyone in the political spectrum? I do not know. I do not understand, but that is where we are.
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Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Madam Speaker, this bill is more cheap talk from Republicans. Nothing in this bill makes a single officer safer or invests a single dollar in officer wellness.
This legislation falls far short of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would invest in better data collection and reporting by requiring law enforcement agencies to report uses of force by or against law enforcement officers as a condition of the receipt of certain grants.
House Republicans are, again, refusing to work with police and the organizations that represent the police to pass meaningful legislation. This legislation is a missed opportunity. It calls for a report that duplicates existing reporting requirements.
It falls far short of meaningful progress in officer safety, and it represents an enormous step backward from the legislation offered by the Democratic majority in the 117th Congress.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to reject this legislation so that we can work together on bipartisan legislation that will really enhance the safety of our officers and our communities.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, cheap talk. That is what the gentleman from New York just said: cheap talk. Madam Speaker, there is nothing cheap about it. Behold the price.
That is why when this body, when this Republican House, undertook to disapprove the D.C. crime bill that would have radically rewritten criminal law in the District of Columbia, this body disapproved it with the support of over 30 Democrats. That is why Chuck Schumer and the Democratic majority in the Senate joined in disapproving that radical rewrite of the criminal law in the District of Columbia. That is why Joe Biden signed the law to disapprove the radical rewrite of the criminal law in D.C.
What is cheap talk is the concern that this would produce a duplicate report. That is the objection, that the report might be duplicative? Really?
I would take duplicative reports from here to kingdom come if there is the slightest chance that it will avoid this unspeakable price. Everybody in the Chamber should support the bill.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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