Sheila Jackson Lee: “I thank the distinguished ranking member and the dean of this institution for yielding and for his leadership; but it is…”

“I thank the distinguished ranking member and the dean of this institution for yielding and for his leadership; but it is even more powerful that the leadership joins with our distinguished chairman of the full committee, Mr. Goodlatte, because this is the beginning of our effort of criminal justice reform that certainly has been one of the guiding focuses of the chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, Mr. Sensenbrenner, who has, likewise, been a former chair of the full committee but has steadily worked on thoughtful legislation dealing with the overall issue of criminal justice reform. I am delighted to be a partner in this legislation and to be a cosponsor and to work on this whole concept of dealing with opioids but, as well, to deal with the question of criminal justice reform with a whole new attitude. I might say that I heard words from Leader Pelosi yesterday evening as she received the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil and Human Rights Award. She indicated that there are three major issues that we should be governed by in this Congress: number one, children; number two, children; and number three, children. One might ask: Why are we discussing children? I thought we were discussing the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act of 2016, and that we are. I am very pleased that it is a very forthright and thoughtful approach to this issue. I support it.…”