Political Quotes

“This legislation represents an unfortunate missed opportunity. After witnessing the horrible tragedy that occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, we should be coming together and working in a bipartisan manner to take every constitutionally permissive step to make our schools safer and more secure and to protect our most valuable resources, our children. That is what we did after the tragic shooting in Parkland, Florida. Back in 2018, Congressman John Rutherford, a former sheriff, led a bipartisan group of Members, myself included, in reauthorizing the COPS Secure Our Schools grant program. The legislation we passed increased Federal funding for school security and expanded the safety measures for which the money could be used. As a result, the Department of Justice announced over $125 million in grants last year to help improve security at local schools. Overall, it is a good program that will benefit millions of students and teachers, but there is always room for improvement. That is why we should be looking for ways to get more money to schools to increase security, but the legislation before us today contains nothing that will really help make our schools safer. In fact, efforts to add school security provisions to the bill were rejected by the majority.…”