Cory Booker: “I want to thank the Presiding Officer and acknowledge my friend, whom I deeply admire, sitting in the chair. It is great…”

“I want to thank the Presiding Officer and acknowledge my friend, whom I deeply admire, sitting in the chair. It is great to give this short speech in front of him. It is good to see the Presiding Officer, my friend. I want to say good afternoon to everyone, and this is a moment in which I want to give a sense of gratitude. I want to thank my colleagues for their incredible work and leadership and, especially, recognize the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Chuck Grassley. I want to thank Senator Dick Durbin, who has been a hero of mine on the issue of criminal justice reform, as well as Mike Lee, who has been a champion, all of their staffs, everyone who is involved in the tireless work and effort that has been going on in what is the pending bill on the floor before us now, the FIRST STEP Act. I also want to recognize the incredible people--many of them advocates, many of them citizens, many of them activists. So many of the groups have been pushing, challenging, demanding that we have criminal justice reform in this country. A lot of these groups have been organized and working for years and years--years before I came to the Senate--to try to bring forward criminal justice reform. They brought insight, wisdom, and they helped to shape this legislation. Their advocacy has made this a better bill.…”