Senator Schmitt Backs Law Enforcement, Slams Senate Democrats for Blocking Pro-Police Bills

‘If you stand on the side of justice and our first responders, these votes should be simple — and easy.’

WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) called for passage of a slate of bills designed to protect and empower police officers and other law enforcement personnel. The commonsense package, which aimed to give law enforcement the tools necessary to protect themselves and keep communities safe, was blocked from passing by Senate Democrats.

Watch the full speech HERE. Watch his rebuttal to Senate Democrats’ objection HERE.

Senate Democrats blocked:

• S. 180, Protecting First Responders from Secondary Exposure Act of 2025: This bill would use existing Department of Justice (DOJ) funds to equip state and local governments with additional training and better equipment to protect against accidental exposure to dangerous substances, such as fentanyl. 
• S. 419, Reauthorizing Support and Treatment for Officers in Crisis Act of 2025: This bill would amend the authorizing years of this program from “2020 through 2024” to “2025 through 2029.” This program is used by the Department of Justice to make grants to state and local law enforcement agencies to provide family support and mental health services, including suicide prevention, to law enforcement personnel.
• S. 539, PROTECT Our Children Reauthorization Act of 2025: This bill would reauthorize and modernize the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program.
• S. 1316, Strong Communities Act of 2025: This bill would allow Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant funds to be used for local law enforcement recruits to attend academic institutions if the recruit agrees to serve in the precincts of law enforcement agencies in their communities.
• S. 1563, Retired Law Enforcement Officers Continuing Service Act: This bill allows state, local, and tribal law enforcement to use COPS grants funds to hire retired federal officers with technical expertise to help train and perform “Civilian Law Enforcements Tasks”.

Read Senator Schmitt’s speech, as prepared for delivery:

I rise today to request unanimous consent to call up and pass this year’s Police Week bills.

These bills are bipartisan.

They are common-sensical.

And most importantly — particularly in light of recent events — they would give this chamber the chance to demonstrate its commitment to the men and women who wear the badge, and to the laws they serve to protect.

This is not a time to mince words or blur lines.

This is a time to speak clearly — with full moral force.

In cities across the country today, our law enforcement officers are beset from below and above.

From below, on our streets, they face an emboldened criminal element and a resurgence of organized political violence.

From above, in the halls of power, they face a political class which seems hellbent on undermining and attacking them at every turn.

We have watched this unfold for years now.

The press has smeared and defamed our police officers — seeking to incite hatred and violence against them.

Fringe academic ideas about defunding police and shuttering prisons have moved from the classroom to the courtroom to the legislature — and then, to codified law.

Riots. Lawsuits. Slashed budgets. Malicious lies blared through the largest megaphones in the nation.

Time and time again, the system has sided with the criminal over the cop; the looter over the law.

The result of this system could be seen in the unprecedented wave of violence that ravaged our cities in the wake of the George Floyd riots in 2020.

It can still be seen today on the streets of cities overtaken by ANTIFA.

These are not theoretical concerns. We watched it happen in real time.

It is not the product of “social conditions”, or inequality, or systemic this-or-that. It is the inevitable result of a civilization that has lost its moral nerve.

A civilization that is too racked by guilt to punish its criminals, to enforce its laws, or to confront its enemies — even when those enemies are beating police officers and firebombing federal buildings right before our eyes.

When a government loses the ability — or the will — to defend its own cities, its own institutions, its own people, then it ceases to be a government worthy of the name.

The path back to justice is simple.

It requires laws like the ones we are considering today.

It requires protecting the people who protect us — like the bill to equip first responders with protective gear against fentanyl exposure, keeping them safe from the very poisons they are trying to fight.

It requires ensuring that our police officers are healthy in body and in spirit — like the bill to reauthorize critical mental health services for cops and their families.

Every single year, more officers die by suicide than they do in the line of duty.

That is a profound policy failure — one that it is on us to fix.

It requires hunting down the predators who seek to prey upon our kids from the darkest recesses of the internet — like the bill to reauthorize and modernize the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

This bill funds and enhances our ability to catch and convict the very worst kinds of criminals — the ones who target and abuse children.

It requires building strong police departments with officers who know the neighborhoods and the people they protect — like our bill to send local recruits to police academies, if they agree to serve in the precincts in their own communities.

And it requires wisdom and experience — like the bill to give state and local agencies the ability to rehire retired officers in civilian law enforcement roles.

If you stand on the side of justice and our first responders, these votes should be simple — and easy.

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