[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 94 (Tuesday, July 19, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                  CONCERNING THE CRIME BILL CONFERENCE

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, conferees first began to meet to 
reconcile differing versions of anticrime legislation more than a month 
ago. The conference committee adjourned without taking any substantive 
action, and it has not yet reconvened. The conferees may return to work 
Thursday, however, and I wanted to take this opportunity to offer my 
thoughts on the proposed chairmen's mark conference report and the 
Republican alternative.
  When the Senate passed anticrime legislation last November, we passed 
a tough bill. And we passed a bill that was fully paid for by spending 
reductions as a result of restructuring Government. The chairmen's mark 
crime conference report is not fully paid for and it is not as tough as 
what we passed in November.
  The chairmen's mark will raise the deficit by $13 billion. The 
additional sums reflect the social spending proposals mistakenly 
labeled ``crime prevention.'' These social programs are an attempt to 
turn the clock back to the 1960's and the Great Society. At the very 
least, they are an effort to turn back the clock to last year, when 
Congress rejected a stimulus plan of almost the same monetary amount. 
Job training programs and expenditures on infrastructure, midnight 
basketball, and life skills is not anticrime legislation. The American 
people are rightfully concerned about crime. They are clamoring for 
Congress to act. But they want real action, not just motion. They do 
not shout, ``reduce crime; spend money on increasing the self-esteem of 
our youngsters,'' as the Assistance for Delinquency and At-Risk Youth 
Programs would do.
  The Republican alternative, by contrast, focuses money on law 
enforcement. Putting dangerous criminals in prison is the best crime 
prevention measure. The Republican alternative will put $15 billion 
into prisons, and it will condition State receipt of some of that money 
on enacting truth in sentencing. The Republican alternative represents 
a more effective approach to fighting crime by being tougher on those 
who commit the violent crime that is shattering the lives of too many 
people in this country.
  Last year, an unfunded stimulus package was filibustered. It may 
happen again this year. And I am sure that no crime conference report 
that contains racial quotas on the death penalty in any form will pass. 
News reports suggest that a compromise to limit the scope of the so-
called racial justice act may be in the works. But the American system 
of individualized justice is not something that can be compromised.
  Madam President, I am glad that the crime conference will meet again 
soon. I will be working to make sure that the final conference report 
reflects the tough provisions this body enacted last fall.
  I hope we will be able to present to the American people a tough bill 
that will improve people's lives, not a rehash of shopworn old social 
programs that will achieve nothing except a higher deficit.

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