On the recordNovember 28, 2017
Let me, first of all, thank Congresswomen Brooks and Demings for a very astute initiative, and I look forward to us working together, along with the chairman, on other items that impact the service of our officers and the better police practices. And I cite, of course, the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act. Mr. Speaker, I say to the chairman, I wanted to make mention of the fact that we have been meeting on police issues for almost 2 years in the Police Working Group, and it has been very impactful. I look forward to us igniting another meeting and being able to hear from both police and community, because we want a safe community and we want safe law enforcement. Let me also say, as I close, that many police officers are veterans, and they have been in a war situation, and that means they have faced crises, they have faced the violence of war, and they, obviously, have experienced bouts, possibly, of PTSD or, as we know that they do, they may not yield to it and may not know it and go right into serving; whether they are fire or police, they go right into serving the community. Therefore, this legislation will be enormously helpful to them. So, as I said earlier, this is a good first step to helping to enhance the mental health or the mental well-being of our law enforcement officers.…
