[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 106 (Thursday, August 4, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 4, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                 THE OMINBUS CRIME CONTROL ACT OF 1994

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Horn] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HORN. Mr. Speaker, the Omnibus Crime Control Act of 1994 is an 
attack on a multitude of criminal actions that have battered our 
quality of life: murder, drug dealing, armed assault, rape, robbery 
kidnaping, carjacking, child pornography, domestic violence. It 
contains an arsenal of weapons intended to return peace and security to 
our Nation's communities through measures that are punitive as well as 
preventive.
  While some may accuse Congress of election-year politicking with this 
bill, and we have certainly heard a lot of partisan wrangling over 
parts of it and intraparty wrangling, the crime situation has moved far 
beyond politics. It is time to attack, and the Crime Control Act is a 
solid weapon to lead that attack.
  Among its provisions, the Crime Control Act will provide $8.7 billion 
for new State prison construction. It sets aside 40 percent of the 
total for States that adopt truth-in-sentencing laws, requiring 
defendants to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence. It earmarks 
$8.8 billion to put 100,000 new police officers on the street.
  Last year, I authored and put into the defense authorization act a 
program that is called Troops to Cops, which provided for retirees from 
the military who are not able to serve their full 20 or more years, if 
they joined a local police, a county sheriff's office, the Federal 
Government would reimburse that salary up to $25,000 the first year, 
another $25,000 years two through five. This is a great addition to 
help the local law enforcement of this country in their most difficult 
times that they have ever faced.
  The Crime Control Act also authorizes $1 billion for the Border 
Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service, enough to fund 
almost 6,000 new Border Patrol agents who will be added to the current 
force of 4,900, and at last give us the tools to help control illegal 
immigration.
  The Crime Control Act will impose the ``three strikes and you're 
out'' sentencing, mandatory life imprisonment without parole for 
criminals convicted of three violent crimes or serious drug offenses.
  The act authorizes $1.8 billion to fight violence against women, a 
too-long-overlooked crime. Funds will go to train police, support 
battered women's shelters, promote rape-awareness education, and 
establish a national family violence hotline.

  The Crime Control Act will also authorize funds for reimbursement to 
States for the costs of incarcerating illegal aliens. The bill alone in 
California is approximately $375 million a year to incarcerate illegal 
aliens. It is important to note the crime bill does not include the 
highly controversial Racial Justice Act which would have required 
judges to consider the defendant's race in sentences imposing the death 
penalty. I did not support that provision. It would have produced a 
number of damaging effects on our ability to control crime, both as a 
State and as a nation.
  Mr. Speaker, whereas I support the merits of the program included in 
the crime bill, I do not support all of the methods for its funding. 
This Congress has authorized spending for a range of new and/or 
expanded programs, and proposes to pay for them with phantom savings.

                              {time}  1550

  The $30 billion funding mechanism for the crime bill is a hoax. A 
trust fund was created to provide for the contents of this bill. 
However, it is based on pure fiction. The formula was designed on the 
premise that Vice President Gore's proposal for a reduction in Federal 
spending, as determined by the National Performance Review, would 
provide $22 billion in savings. I am dubious that that money will be 
there to pay for these programs.
  Despite this funding formula, there is a quality mixture of punitive 
and preventive measures in this bill. These measures are vital to 
combating crime in our communities, and I cannot hold these programs 
hostage to the excessive funding and extraneous padding that is also 
contained in parts of this bill. I have serious reservations as to 
whether these programs will ever materialize, but I am willing to take 
that chance with the hope that they will take effect and reduce the 
impact of crime on the lives of all too many Americans.

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