The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“Attorney General Garland (Executive Session)” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the in the Senate section section on pages S7437-S7438 on Oct. 28.
The Department is one of the oldest in the US, focused primarily on law enforcement and the federal prison system. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, detailed wasteful expenses such as $16 muffins at conferences and board meetings.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
Attorney General Garland
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, yesterday brought reports that carjackings in my hometown of Louisville were up 150 percent since 2019, and the city's 2021 murder total is rapidly closing in on an alltime record that was set just last year.
These aren't just local problems; they are national trends. Twenty-
twenty saw the homicide rate jump more than at any point in over a century--the worst spike in the murder rate in more than 100 years.
The law enforcement crises don't stop there. Our southern border saw more illegal crossings last year than in any year on record. Yet ICE has made its fewest interior arrests in a decade.
A crime epidemic and a border crisis--these are the sorts of problems you might expect the Nation's top law enforcement officer to face head-
on. These are the sorts of issues that should keep the Department of Justice up all night long. But, alas, Attorney General Garland has other priorities.
The AG made waves this month with a bizarre memo that directed the FBI, along with DOJ's Criminal, National Security, and Civil Rights Divisions, to focus--now listen to this--special attention and security on parents--parents--who have opinions about their local school boards.
Yesterday, under questioning from the Judiciary Committee, the Attorney General seemed absolutely incapable of giving a satisfactory explanation as to why the parents of America are his
A-1 priority; nor could he explain why this bizarre guidance came just days--days--after a powerful interest group sent a letter demanding this action.
Actually--listen to this--the interest group has already apologized for the letter. They say they regret sending it. But the Attorney General won't budge from his shocking guidance even after the special interests that asked for it have backed away. Apparently, the instant that special interests ask the Biden administration to jump, the Attorney General responds: How high?
The Attorney General insisted that all his Department is concerned about is ``violence and threats of violence.'' Well, of course violence and threats are always wrong. They are also already illegal and already the purview of local law enforcement.
There is no evidence that America's concerned parents needed to be singled out as targets of this J. Edgar Hoover act from the Feds. If Democrats at the local, State, and Federal levels want fewer parents--concerned parents--showing up at school board meetings, the solution is to stop indoctrinating the kids with crazy messages on the taxpayers' dime, not trying to use Federal law enforcement to frighten families out of their First Amendment rights.
