U.s. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., praised the advancement of the Laken Riley Act on Thursday.
The Senate voted 84-9 to move the bill forward on the eve of what would have been Riley’s 23rd birthday.
“Today’s vote on the Laken Riley Act is an important step forward in making our country safer, but there’s still more work to be done to get this commonsense legislation across the finish line,” Britt said. “Laken’s horrific murder should never have happened. While we cannot bring Laken back, Congress can and must pass the Laken Riley Act to save American lives and prevent this tragedy from repeating itself. Congress has an obligation to Laken, her family, and to Americans in every corner of our country to get this bill passed and signed into law.”
This legislation was originally introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressman Mike Collins, R-Ga., and passed the House of Representatives this week by a bipartisan vote of 264 to 159, with 48 Democrats voting in favor.
Britt, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently reintroduced the Senate version of the Laken Riley Act in the 119th Congress. She was joined by the entire Senate Republican Conference in introducing the bill. Senator Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., is also a cosponsor.
“There was no reason — no reason at all — that she should no longer be with us. Her killer, who came to this country illegally, should never have been in the United States,” Britt said on the Senate floor before the vote. “And once he had been arrested for multiple crimes before committing the most heinous, unimaginable crime, he should have been detained by ICE immediately. Had that been the case, Laken’s family and Laken herself would face a very different reality. They’d be celebrating a birthday, not approaching the one-year anniversary of her murder.”
