Joaquin Castro: “Again, Mr. Chairman, this is an issue, fundamentally, of transparency and accountability; and the argument that I hear…”

“Again, Mr. Chairman, this is an issue, fundamentally, of transparency and accountability; and the argument that I hear coming from the other side is that this is an evidentiary issue and that it is going to be too much of a hassle, so we don't want to hear or see what is in these cameras or on this video. That cannot be a responsible approach to law enforcement or to our judicial system. I am asking in this amendment for $10 million. We spend more in furniture in this Chamber, in this House of Representatives, than the amount of money that I am requesting in this amendment. We spend more on Member travel every year than the amount of money that I am requesting in this amendment to make sure that both agents and the public are safer. Let me give you an example, one example of what body cameras recently found in Baltimore, Maryland. An officer was seen on camera, a body camera recorded an officer planting drugs that he then pretended to find on a suspect. A week later, another officer was also found to be planting evidence. Are we saying tonight that the American people and our judicial system don't want to see that evidence because of some storage problem? And, by the way, technology and the cloud have made storage a lot cheaper, so I think that information is outdated. The argument on that side is outdated.…”