[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 101 (Thursday, July 28, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    THE CRIME BILL CONFERENCE REPORT

  Mr. GRAMM. Mr. President, I wanted to express my deep disappointment 
in the early descriptions of the conference report that was agreed to 
early this morning on the crime bill. I believe that when the American 
people have an opportunity to look at this agreement, they are going to 
share my disappointment.
  There are a lot of issues that I could talk about, beginning with the 
President's support for executive branch policy that will bring racial 
quotas into the death penalty in America as part of an effort to put 
the crime bill together. But today I simply want to talk about three 
areas that I am very much concerned about, areas where I believe the 
conference committee has not reflected the will of the American people.
  On the floor of the Senate, I offered a set of amendments to require 
10 years in prison, without parole, for possessing a firearm during the 
commission of a violent crime or a drug felony; 20 years without 
parole, in prison every day, for discharging a firearm during the 
commitment of a violent crime or a drug felony; life imprisonment, 
without parole, for killing somebody; and the death penalty in 
aggravated cases.
  A version of that amendment was adopted overwhelmingly by the U.S. 
Senate, as it has been adopted overwhelmingly for a number of years.
  When we went to conference with the House of Representatives, that 
amendment has reportedly been dropped. Therefore, it is not part of the 
crime bill.
  For several years I have offered an amendment requiring 10 years in 
prison without parole for an adult who uses a child in the commission 
of a drug felony or who sells drugs to a minor. I believe that the 
American people overwhelmingly support that provision. But in the 
conference meeting last night, I am told that that provision, which has 
been adopted by overwhelming votes on many occasions in the U.S. 
Senate, was again dropped. Therefore, it will not be in the crime bill.
  But perhaps the thing that I am most unhappy about is the report of 
the action that was taken with regard to mandatory minimum sentencing. 
I have been alarmed from the first day of the Clinton administration by 
the difference between the President's rhetoric on crime and the action 
of his own Justice Department. The President in his very first speech 
to a joint session of Congress talked about getting tough on criminals. 
Yet the Attorney General and the Justice Department have spent every 
day they have been in office trying to overturn mandatory minimum 
sentencing for drug felons.
  In an effort to try to compromise, in an effort to work in the best 
spirit of bipartisanship, as I am sure my colleagues who were leading 
the debate when we debated the crime bill would attest, I agreed to a 
compromise that said, in essence, those convicted of a drug felony who 
have no criminal record, and if the drug felony did not involve a 
minor, if they were not carrying a gun, if they were not a leader of 
the drug conspiracy, and if no one was injured in the crime, that the 
judge can take that into account in giving them a reduced sentence.
  Mr. President, that was not an easy compromise for me to make because 
when someone is selling drugs to a child, this is a violent crime, in 
my opinion. But in the best spirit of bipartisanship, I helped work out 
that agreement, an agreement that would have covered, interestingly 
enough, only about 100 people a year.
  Now, the conference committee has reportedly agreed to a provision 
that will allow people with previous drug convictions to be let out of 
jail and that according to some estimates retroactively could affect 
10,000 convicted drug felons who are in prison today. They could be 
released by a bill that we call an anticrime bill.
  I cannot understand, Mr. President, how we can be talking about 
getting tough on criminals and yet think of passing a bill which 
apparently has now been approved by the conference committee and will 
come back to the Senate with a provision that will retroactively go 
back and release drug felons who are in prison today under mandatory 
minimum sentences. Many of them are in prison because they were helping 
to sell drugs to children, and yet they will be let out of prison by a 
successful effort now by this administration to overturn mandatory 
minimum sentencing for drug felons.
  When the President is standing up and saying let us get tough on 
criminals, when the President is saying three strikes and you are out, 
how many people knew the President was saying let us go back and change 
the law and allow thousands of drug felons who are in prison today out 
of prison because this administration believes that we were too tough 
on them by putting them in prison to begin with?
  I do not believe that that provision reflects the will of the 
American people.
  So, Mr. President, let me tell you what I intend to do on this one 
issue.
  First of all, I am going to offer these provisions on every bill that 
I can for the remainder of this Senate. On those bills, I am going to 
offer these three provisions: 10 years in prison without parole for 
possessing a firearm during the commission of a violent crime or a drug 
felony; 20 years for discharging it; life imprisonment for killing 
someone; the death penalty in aggravated cases. That is one amendment. 
Another one will require 10 years in prison without parole for selling 
drugs to a minor or using a minor in a drug conspiracy.
  Finally, I am going to do my best on each and every bill to overturn 
the administration's successful effort to let possibly thousands of 
drug felons who are in prison today out of prison.
  I do not believe that that in any way reflects the will of the 
American people, and I think it is greatly at variance with the 
President's own rhetoric on this subject.
  So I intend, at this point, to oppose the crime bill which, although 
it has some good provisions, while it has provisions that I have 
written and provisions that I have supported, I cannot support a crime 
bill that is going to overturn mandatory minimum sentencing for drug 
felons and which may potentially allow according to some estimates as 
many as 10,000 drug felons who are in the Federal penitentiary back out 
on the streets because the administration believes that we were too 
tough on them.
  I also intend to see that we have an opportunity to vote on these 
amendments again and again until ultimately they are the law of the 
land.

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