Patty Murray: “I thank the President. I thank my colleague from California for yielding and for bringing this extremely important issue…”

“I thank the President. I thank my colleague from California for yielding and for bringing this extremely important issue out to the floor of the Senate this morning. The Senator has been diligent in pursuing this and in asking our colleagues to bring this issue forward so that we can get a vote and move quickly forward to let the people of this Nation know that the highest elected officials in this country do not condone violence. We will do everything we can to protect all of our citizens in this country. Before us we have the unfunded mandate issue. It is an extremely important and extremely complex issue that we deal with today. However, it does raise a number of questions. It will take Members some time to move through that issue. Certainly we have to ask what is the outcome of this issue and make sure that, as we pass unfunded mandates, we do it in a way that will not bring about consequences that we have not asked for. The Senator from California is bringing forward an issue that the consequences are clear. The consequences are the safety of individuals in this country, one of the highest priorities that we have. The issue of unfunded mandates is critical. But the issue of violence is just as important, if not more important. The issue of violence is one that every child in this country, unfortunately, understands and talks about. The issue of violence is one that we have to deal with at all levels.”