Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I commend Senator Cornyn and the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Leahy, for their work on the Justice for All Reauthorization Act of 2016, which today passed the Senate. I also want to thank the sponsors for agreeing to accept, as part of this reauthorization measure, some transparency language that I developed. This language also passed the Senate today by unanimous consent in the form of a floor amendment to the Justice for All Reauthorization Act. The purpose of the original Justice for All Act, on which many of us worked during congressional consideration of the measure in 2004, is to protect crime victims' rights, authorize resources to reduce backlogs of unanalyzed DNA evidence from crime scenes and convicted offenders, and expand the DNA testing capacity of the Nation's crime laboratories. The statute also authorizes resources for testing DNA evidence to protect the innocent from wrongful convictions. By working together in a bipartisan fashion, our colleagues have produced legislation that will extend these programs for several more years. The purpose of my amendment to this reauthorization measure is to increase the transparency and promote accountability of many DNA- related programs and activities that are administered by the Justice Department's Office of Justice Programs.…”