Rand Paul: “reserving the right to object, for a year and a half, we have been offering my colleague a compromise in the passage of…”

“reserving the right to object, for a year and a half, we have been offering my colleague a compromise in the passage of this bill. We could pass this bill today, immediately. All we have been asking is that it not only protect Federal judges but protect Members of Congress as well. I haven't heard a cogent or even any argument for why it couldn't. It is a very simple compromise. To pass things unanimously takes compromise. It takes people coming together and people agreeing. But there hasn't been any movement; there hasn't been any compromise; and I am still open. We can pass this today to include Members of Congress. If recent years have taught us anything, it is that members of the legislative branch need protection as well as those in the judiciary. That was clear in 2011 when Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was tragically shot while she was doing the most important part of her job--meeting with constituents. Words cannot express how happy and inspired I was to see that Congresswoman Giffords was in the Chamber with her husband, Senator Kelly, when he was sworn in as a Member of this body. Well, words also cannot express the pain felt by the families of the people who were killed that day and wounded. That should have been a wake-up call to protect Members of Congress and, in doing so, to better protect the people around them. Yet, just a few years later, a shooter nearly killed Congressman Steve Scalise during a practice for the charity baseball game.…”