On Wednesday, Senate Democrats blocked the Securing Our Schools Act, a bill by U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) to improve school security and access to student mental health resources. He also blocked the Protect Our Children’s Schools Act, which would have allowed schools to use unspent previously appropriated federal COVID-19 education-related funding to improve school security.
On the Senate floor, Sen. Cruz said:
“There have been too damn many mass shootings. With kids going back in school all across the country, we need to again revisit what we can do to keep them safe from mass shooters.
“Their parents are scared and they they’ve expressed concerns that the security measures at schools and Uvalde haven’t improved enough to make them feel safe. Today, I want to put forth two bills that would address this problem inevitably when a mass murder occurs.
“This bill would be the most serious, the most significant, the most major investment in school security Congress has ever enacted. This bill would double the number of police officers on campus.”
In response to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) objecting, Sen. Cruz said:
“What we just saw reveals that the Democrats have one objective when a mass murder happens, and that is to take away the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. That is always, always, always their solution. Never mind that it doesn’t work. … If another lunatic attacks a school and there’s not a police officer at the front door to stop it, remember right now. Remember this moment when the Democrats said, ‘No, we will not protect our kids.’”
The Securing Our Schools Act would:
- Invest $15 billion in school safety personnel, doubling the number of school resource officers
- Invest $10 billion to hire 15,000 school-based mental health professionals
- Increase the physical security of schools through grants
- Triple FEMA’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program to help secure schools
Sen. Cruz has a longstanding history of advocating for the security of students by improving school safety. In 2013, Sen. Cruz introduced Cruz-Grassley, a comprehensive effort to make schools and communities safer by simultaneously targeting violent criminals and safeguarding the Second Amendment. Earlier this year, Sen. Cruz introduced the Cruz-Barrasso Safe Kids, Safe Schools, Safe Communities Act to protect the Second Amendment, improve firearm safety, and prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands.
Watch Sen. Cruz’s remarks here.
Read the bill here.
Watch CBS Dallas-Fort Worth’s coverage of the bill here.
