[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 35 (Thursday, March 24, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 24, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                           CRIME BILL HANG-UP

  (Mr. McCOLLUM asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, this morning I have heard a number of my 
Democrat colleagues object to the fact that last night Republicans 
expressed their concern over an unfair rule on the crime bill and 
somehow, quote-unquote, ``delayed'' the bringing of this bill up until 
after the April recess. This is very disingenuous, but, even more 
important, it needs to be a reminder to every one of us that we 
Republicans are not the majority. We have not been in control of this 
House for the last 40 consecutive years.
  We had a bill in on our side we thought was a good crime bill last 
August. The other body enacted its crime bill in the fall. There was no 
activity on their side of the aisle to bring up a crime bill through 
the Committee on the Judiciary of any consequence until about 2 weeks 
ago.
  Who is delaying this? This is ridiculous. We wanted tough amendments. 
We still do want them, to correct deficiencies in this bill. The bill 
on the floor today, if passed and became law, would allow for no death 
penalty to ever be carried out in this country again. It has no 
provisions in it that will provide and assure that there will be an end 
to the revolving door that is letting violent criminals out on the 
street to commit repeat offenses again and again and again, and it has 
nothing in it which addresses the criminal alien problem--25 percent of 
all the criminals in our prisons today are aliens. We are not 
addressing that problem. We should be addressing that problem. Many of 
them are illegal, many of them are felons.
  This is a very bad bill that has been brought out. All Republicans 
want to do is get a few simple amendments to make this bill do what the 
American public wants, and that is to end the violent crime crisis in 
this country and end the endless appeals of death row inmates and put 
deterrence back into our criminal justice system, and send a message 
that when you get 20 years, you are going to serve 20 years.

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