David Jolly: “I would like to thank my colleague from Washington. I rise today to join my colleagues in paying tribute to law…”

“I would like to thank my colleague from Washington. I rise today to join my colleagues in paying tribute to law enforcement, recognizing their service each and every day. I had an opportunity a few weeks ago on this floor to thank and to recognize my local law enforcement community, law enforcement officers, law enforcement leadership from Pinellas County, Florida--the cities of St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, and others--and, with Tarpon Springs, remember an officer who our community lost just 4 days before Christmas, Officer Charles Kondek, whose end of watch was December 21, leaving behind a family and children. We can pay tribute--which we should and which the vast majority of Americans do every day--but we also are a Congress who must offer solutions and who must act. One of the ways in which we can act is to ensure, just as we do for our men and women of the military, that our law enforcement have the tools and technology necessary to do their job. While much of local law enforcement is, indeed, funded locally, there is a program--the 1033 program that has been debated so much during this past year--that provides equipment, protective equipment, tools, and technology for our law enforcement officers to do their job. That is a Federal program that should not be controversial.…”