Mr. President, today, on Peace Officers Memorial Day, I would like to honor the service and sacrifice of Colt Eugene Allery, a sheriff's deputy in Rolette County, ND, who was killed in the line of duty in January of 2017. Deputy Allery was…

We need to ensure that our schools are safe and secure for our children.

We need data.

We have a unique and critical responsibility.

If you spend any time at all talking to people in Indian Country, there is not a reservation in North Dakota that thinks they have too much law enforcement.

I do not think it is always clear who has jurisdiction.

We know, and no one should deny, that we have an incredible job to do in improving the quality of Indian education in these schools.

One is resourcing schools so that we are dealing with behavioral and mental health issues.

We cannot let that happen. This needs to be systemic and ongoing.

I need to know who we can count on and who we can hold accountable if something happens where there is not appropriate emergency response.

If people are not protected, it is awfully hard to learn.

Senator Heitkamp, you asked the question, what are we doing?

The reason this is a unique hearing on the Bureau of Indian Education is that I want to know about emergency response.

We absolutely need to get a cop on the beat.

We must do more to protect our Native American students.

I don't think anyone else shares the same concerns for children that I do.

The other part of the question is will you make a commitment to us that for each one of the schools for which we have obligations, we are going to get an answer on who has jurisdiction.

We spent more time than we should have trying to figure who had jurisdiction over that school.