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“HONORING THE MEMORIES OF THE VICTIMS OF THE SENSELESS ATTACK AT MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL ON FEBRUARY 14, 2018” mentioning Marco Rubio and Rick Scott was published in the Senate section on pages S584-S585 on Feb. 8.
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The publication is reproduced in full below:
HONORING THE MEMORIES OF THE VICTIMS OF THE SENSELESS ATTACK AT MARJORY
STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL ON FEBRUARY 14, 2018
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 42, submitted earlier today.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A resolution (S. Res. 42) honoring the memories of the victims of the senseless attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the resolution.
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The resolution (S. Res. 42) was agreed to.
The preamble was agreed to.
(The resolution, with its preamble, is printed in today's Record under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I would like to thank my colleague Senator Rubio for joining me to introduce this resolution today honoring the 17 victims of the senseless attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018: Alyssa Alhadeff, Scott Beigel, Martin Duque Anguiano, Nicholas Dworet, Aaron Feis, Jaime Guttenberg, Chris Hixon, Luke Hoyer, Cara Loughran, Gina Montalto, Joaquin Oliver, Alaina Petty, Meadow Pollack, Helena Ramsay, Alex Schachter, Carmen Schentrup, Peter Wang.
I think of those innocent lives almost every day, lost too early in the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.
These individuals were sons, daughters, parents, and partners. They were educators, athletes, musicians. Many of them just kids, with a life full of promise ahead of them.
My heart breaks knowing they will never get to pursue their dreams and that their families will always have a piece of their heart missing.
Since that horrible day, I have worked closely with many of the victims' families to ensure no child, educator, or family has to experience that again.
We passed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act while I was Governor of Florida to make sure our State does everything in its power to prevent further tragedies.
Now, as a U.S. Senator, I am fighting for improvements on the Federal level, including the Luke and Alex School Safety Act, named after Luke Hoyer and Alex Schachter, which builds on our work to keep schools safe.
And while we can't bring back these lives lost that tragic day nearly 3 years ago, I will always work to honor those lost and do everything in my power to protect our students and educators and ensure they have a safe environment to learn and succeed.
Now, I yield the floor to my colleague Senator Rubio
Mr. RUBIO. I thank my colleague from Florida.
I recall so vividly that day on February 14, 2018. It started like it does most days with people across the country. They take their children to school, drop them off, and, in this case, maybe some of them drove themselves.
And within hours, the lives of 17 families had been changed forever. It was a horrible tragedy: 17 students and faculty members who lost their lives; another 17 that were wounded in the attack. And it shocked the country.
It was shocking because they went to do what so many people do on a regular basis in a place where you never think that something like that could happen.
And as my colleague pointed out, there is no resolution in the Senate or words that we can say that will restore the lives that were lost, erase the pain still felt by those victims, the families, the friends, those who loved them.
But even as we continue to grieve, we must also work to prevent something like this from happening anywhere at any time.
I was proud that in the early days after this tragedy, within just a few weeks, together, working across the aisle, we passed the STOP School Violence Act, which provided Federal grant money for school safety. And that has been ongoing now for 3 years.
We passed the Fix NICS Act, which helped patch some of the holes that existed in our background check system.
Since that day, I have had the honor of getting to know and working with the parents of many of those who lost their lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
And I will say that their grace in the face of the most traumatic loss that any parent, any sibling, any cousin, any grandparent, anyone can imagine--working with them has been humbling in the face of the grace that they have shown. The commitment to ensuring that no one else has to go through what they did is inspiring.
There are so many I can point to who have made a difference in their own way. They have all sort of focused on different aspects of what we should be doing, and I just want to take a moment today to recognize one individual, Max Schachter.
I know many of you have gotten to know him here. This man works tirelessly. He lost his son Alex on that day.
But his commitment has actually produced significant progress, thanks to his leadership, and I must say his leadership--and I spoke to him again last Friday, and he continues to work on these issues.
And thanks to that, last year, the Federal Government created a Federal clearinghouse on school safety best practices--a place that any district, any school can go to and something that is constantly being updated, that puts an essential location for best practices and offers access to an array of resources for schools across our Nation that are looking to protect their students.
And this is important because in the aftermath of this, everyone was trying to figure out, well, what should we do? And there was no central place where you could go to and find that out.
And recently, as my colleague from Florida has pointed out, I, along with my colleague from Florida and Senator Ron Johnson, we reintroduced the Luke and Alex School Safety Act, named after--partially after his son Alex, which would make this clearinghouse permanent. It was put in place by the Agency, but this would make it permanent.
And I just think of parents like Max, who have poured so much of their own lives into this work and continue to do so, and he is always churning out new ideas.
We spoke this last Friday about data that is now available, that a lot of people don't even know is there; data that shows you which schools are having suspensions, which schools are having fights, which schools are having arrests and violence as a way of finding anomalies in the data. I mean, he is constantly--and Max has become a subject matter expert through this tragedy, but he is constantly looking for improvements that can be not just done in Florida but across the country, and he is tireless all across the country.
There is something else we took that was successful in Florida, and today we have reintroduced, along with Senator Reed and Senator King and my colleague from Florida--that is reintroducing the Extreme Risk Protection Order and Violence Prevention Act, to encourage the passing of these laws that allow you to identify someone who is a danger to themselves or others, to go to a court, provide them due process, and potentially prevent a suicide or a senseless act like what we saw on that day 3 years ago.
And this bill would not mandate it, but it would dedicate the Department of Justice funds to incentivize more States to adopt similar measures. It will encourage the rest of the country to follow the lead in Florida and to save lives. We know it has prevented suicides and we know it has prevented potential attacks in Florida and in States where it has been implemented. And we can't force more States to do it, but we can try to incentivize them.
So it is my hope and my prayer that as we continue to work together that we can achieve this and other things so that no family, no community, no State, no one will have to go through what the incredible families of Parkland endured on that day and the 3 years that followed.
Today, as we remember the lives that were lost, let us pledge to honor them by continuing to move forward toward safer and more secure schools and communities in our work here.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
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