Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. President, today marks the beginning of National Sexual Assault Awareness Month. It comes at a time when Congress is about ready to take up reauthorization of the Justice For All Act--a law that has improved public safety, strengthened victims' rights, and delivered justice all across this country. I am proud to be the lead Republican sponsor of this bill, and I am even prouder of what it has accomplished and what it will continue to accomplish.

Thanks to the Justice For All Act and similar initiatives, law enforcement agencies across America now have greater resources to reduce the rape kit backlog. I might just explain. A rape kit is, as it sounds, a forensic collection of evidence collected at the scene of a sexual assault. Much to our chagrin, we have learned over time that many of these rape kits--this forensic evidence--is not forwarded to a lab for testing and, thus, the DNA of the assailant is not identified. So we realized that local jurisdictions needed more resources and more guidance and more expertise when it came to testing these untested rape kits because of the incredible evidence it provides, both to acquit people who have been falsely accused of crimes, as well as to identify, indict, and convict serial sexual assailants.

This is sort of unique in many ways because people who commit rape don't just do it one time. Many times they will do it time and time again until they are caught. Worse yet, this is a crime of opportunity. Many times it involves children as well, as we know. So now we know that thanks to the Justice For All Act and similar initiatives which have allowed these rape kits to be taken off the evidence locker shelf and tested, that what has been a national scandal, which has allowed violent criminals to remain on the streets, is now being addressed more and more.

I am not here to suggest that everything that can be done has been done, but it is important for us to make sure these rape kits are tested and to get these serial sexual assailants off the streets and brought before a court of law and justice.

Even a relatively small reduction in the backlog can lead to major gains in public safety and peace of mind. In the city of Detroit, for example, the processing of 1,600 old sexual assault kits, including some from the 1980s, allowed authorities to identify 100 different serial rapists, ten of whom were convicted rapists already. So this is powerful evidence. Incredibly, police sometimes keep this forensic evidence for 20 or 30 years, and it is still susceptible to being tested, and for the rapist to be identified and to be taken out of circulation.

In the city of Houston, meanwhile, a backlog that once reached 6,600 untested rape kits is now in the process of being completely eliminated--thanks, in large part, to the support provided by this legislation.

I wish to take a second to highlight the SAFER Act, which was included in the Violence Against Women Act and which passed just this last year, and the fact that it funded a provision of the Justice For All Act known as the Debbie Smith Act. I have had the pleasure of meeting Debbie Smith for whom this legislation was named, and she has become a tireless advocate for the sorts of reforms and improved funding that are contained in the SAFER Act and in the Justice For All reauthorization.

The SAFER Act mandated that more of the money the Federal Government granted must be used to actually test old rape kits as well as dedicate a portion of that money to inventory--evidence that had been sitting on police evidence locker shelves or had been sent to laboratories but had not yet been tested. This law, passed in 2013, has already played a crucial role in making Federal support available for tackling the rape kit backlog.

I was proud to introduce that legislation and I am proud to sponsor reauthorization of the Justice For All Act. As I said a moment ago, I am enormously gratified and proud of what these laws have helped us accomplish. Upholding victims' rights and keeping dangerous predators off the street are two of the most solemn obligations the government has, and we should never forget it.

With hundreds of thousands of rape kits still untested, we have a long way to go; there is no question about it. It is encouraging to see the progress that has been made. Hopefully, this will encourage us to take even further steps to make sure these untested rape kits are tested and the people who are innocent are vindicated from any charges. But the people who commit serial sexual assault, both against other adults and minors, should be and will be brought to justice.

THE ECONOMY

Shifting gears to the economy, I wish to repeat a call I made yesterday and once again urge the majority leader in the context of the legislation we are currently considering to allow Republican ideas for economic growth and job creation to come to the floor for a vote.

I realize President Obama has stubbornly chosen to stick with the same policies that have given us the weakest economic recovery following a recession since World War II. It is also the highest--the longest period of high unemployment since the Great Depression. Indeed, after promoting the same fiscal and economic strategy for the last 5 years--a strategy that involves higher taxes, more Federal spending, and more debt--the President and his allies seem to see no reason to change course. His proposed budget for 2015, for example, would increase Federal spending by $791 billion. It would also increase taxes by $1.8 trillion over 10 years, and increase our national debt by $8.3 trillion. That is on top of the $17 trillion already--about $56,000 for every man, woman, and child in America.

For those keeping score, the President has already raised taxes by $1.7 trillion during his presidency and increased our national debt by four times that much. In other words, if more taxes and more spending were the path to prosperity for this great Nation, America would be booming, unemployment would be at zero, and our economy would be chugging along, creating new jobs right and left. Instead, the evidence is in. We are experiencing stagnation and mass unemployment. It is said that insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over but somehow expecting a different result. If that is the definition of insanity, then maintaining the current policies of spending, tax, and debt are the definition of insanity.

There has to be a better way, and there is, if only the majority leader would allow the Senate to do what it is supposed to do. This body used to once be known as the world's greatest deliberative body, where we had the great debates on the issues of the time, and then we had a vote, and we all accepted the majority vote in those instances. But now, the new tactic by the majority leader seems to be to bring a bill to the floor without going through a committee where members of that legislative committee are allowed to offer amendments and to get votes on those amendments to help shape the committee product. We don't even do that anymore, and we didn't do that on this underlying unemployment insurance extension bill we will be voting on this week.

So Members of the Republican Conference--the Republican Members of the Senate--have offered 45 amendments, all of which are designed to improve the underlying piece of legislation and not just kick the can down the road. I would think the majority leader and the President of the United States would welcome our efforts to try to improve the underlying legislation--but apparently not.

For example, can't we do a better job, let's say, of directing Federal dollars for workforce training efforts in places such as West Virginia and Texas so that for the good jobs that do exist, we could match the skills of these people who have been unemployed for a long time to those good jobs that pay very well and do exist in abundance. So we have 45 different suggestions and ideas we would like to offer in the spirit of cooperation and trying to do our jobs as Members of the Senate. However, so far, the majority leader has steadfastly and, I might add, stubbornly, pushed for another extension of unemployment insurance without anything else attached that would actually improve workforce training and programs that would upgrade stale skills for people who have been unemployed for a long period of time so they can qualify to do the good-paying jobs that exist.

One of the favorite parlor games here in Washington, DC, is to spin various narratives to explain what is happening in Washington. Sometimes I have heard the majority leader and others say the Republican Party is the party of no. Well, that is a false narrative. We have 45 different amendments that would improve this underlying legislation. We have been shut out and, more importantly, the 26 million people I represent in the State of Texas have been shut out of this debate and this discussion and this effort to come forward with a better product. Isn't that what we are here for?

I mentioned some of these ideas that have been proposed yesterday. For example, I mentioned a bill, sponsored in different forms, by the senior Senator from Maine and the junior Senator from South Carolina that would relieve the burden of ObamaCare, which has been complained about mightily by organized labor and others, that has compelled--or induced, I should say--employers to take 40-hour workweeks and shrink them to 30 hours or less in order to avoid ObamaCare penalties. So this amendment would relieve that burden on workers and businesses by restoring the traditional 40-hour work week. Why wouldn't that be a subject worthy of debate and a vote in the Senate?

I mentioned a separate bill introduced by the junior Senator from South Carolina that would modernize workforce training and eliminate duplicative governmental programs. There are more than 40 different government programs that purport to train people to improve their job skills all across the country.

I have had the chance to visit some of those locations in Texas, and they do a very good job. But rather than have 40-plus different programs, why don't we have 1 or 2 and use the extra money from all that duplication in order to put more money into these programs so they can train more people and get them back to work faster? That is another of the amendments that have been shut out of this process so far.

I also mention legislation sponsored by the senior Senator from Utah and the junior Senator from Kentucky respectively that would eliminate ObamaCare's job-killing tax on medical innovation--something that I believe, if allowed to come for a vote, would receive an overwhelming majority vote on a bipartisan basis in the Senate.

Also, the junior Senator from Kentucky has a piece of legislation that would make it easier for Congress to block major regulations that cannot pass a simple cost-benefit analysis.

Meanwhile, the junior Senator from Wyoming and the senior Senator from North Dakota, whom I see on the floor, have a bill that would expedite the approval of natural gas exports to our NATO partners in Europe and to Ukraine and help relieve that stranglehold Vladimir Putin and Russia have on Europe because they control most of their energy supply. It would also approve the Keystone XL Pipeline, thereby creating thousands of well-paying American jobs and would transport North Dakota oil and Canadian oil all the way down to Texas, where it would be refined into gasoline and jet fuel and create thousands of jobs in the process.

In addition, another amendment that has been offered on this underlying legislation that would help the economy grow and help get people back to work and rein in excessive Federal regulation that is killing jobs--the senior Senator from Oklahoma has a bill that would stop new EPA regulations until--until--the Agency could tell us exactly what the impact of those regulations would be on jobs and the economy.

So most of the ideas I have listed have been submitted as one of these 45 amendments to the underlying unemployment insurance bill. Yet the majority leader, who is the traffic cop on the Senate floor--the rules of the Senate give him complete, 100-percent discretion to decide which amendments are going to get a vote and which will not--the majority leader seems determined to prevent any votes on any of these ideas.

If we are truly serious about job creation and if we are truly serious about doing everything possible to get America back to work--because of the dignity work provides and the means it provides people to provide for their own families and to pursue their dreams--why on Earth would we deny Members a chance to vote on these job-creating pieces of legislation? Well, unfortunately, I think we got a little bit of a peek into the majority leader's playbook last week when he and others had a press conference upstairs and talked about this agenda they had for the time from the present through the election. And they were pretty candid about it. This is an agenda they dreamed up in conjunction with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The majority leader said as much in his announcement. In other words, this is a political plan by the political arm of the Democratic Senators' campaign committee. So this is not about finding solutions or else the majority leader would welcome these suggestions we have offered.

I would say to the majority leader, do not allow votes on these amendments simply to placate me and others of my political party. Do not do it for us. Do it for the 3.8 million people who have been unemployed for more than 6 months. Do it for them. Do it for the untold numbers of people who have simply given up looking for work. Our labor participation rate--the percentage of Americans actually in the workforce--is at a 40-year low. So it is not only the tragedy of the unemployment numbers that we see reported, it is people who are not reflected in those unemployment numbers because those statistics do not count people who have given up. And that is what the low labor participation rate indicates. These are the people who need our help, and they are the ones who deserve a vote on these constructive suggestions to the underlying piece of legislation. I hope the majority leader will reconsider.

I yield the floor.

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