Sheila Jackson Lee: “I thank the authors of this legislation, as well as the previous speaker, my friend, for his articulation of this bill…”

“I thank the authors of this legislation, as well as the previous speaker, my friend, for his articulation of this bill, and I thank all of the Members who are on the floor joining in support of H.R. 2137, the Federal Law Enforcement Self-Defense and Protection Act of 2015. I thank Mr. Conyers, the ranking member, for yielding to me. Mr. Speaker, let me express my recognition and appreciation of the thousands of families who will come to honor those police officers who have fallen in duty--many of them, their loved ones. We honor law enforcement officers who gave their lives in the line of duty. The loss of one officer's life is one too many. In considering the myriad of dangers our officers face, we must ensure they have the appropriate authority to protect our communities and themselves. I support this legislation because it will make it clear that the brave Federal law enforcement officers who protect us will not be forced to lock away their government-issued firearms in the event of official furloughs, such as those occasioned by government shutdowns. {time} 1800 Our Federal law enforcement officers must be prepared to respond to numerous threats faced each day by our country, and this bill will help them do so without expanding any existing authority or creating new ones. This bill ensures our Federal law enforcement agencies uniformly provide our special agents and other law enforcement officers with the necessary support to respond to critical incidents.…”