[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 111 (Thursday, August 11, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 11, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    THE CRIME BILL CONFERENCE REPORT

  (Mr. SANDERS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I will be voting in favor of the crime bill 
today, despite some provisions in it with which I stongly disagree 
because, on balance, its positive initiatives to control crime outweigh 
the negatives. But I want to make it clear that in my view, no approach 
toward crime will be effective if we continue to ignore the poverty, 
despair and hopelessness which are the root causes of crime.
  Mr. Speaker, at a time when increased property taxes in Vermont are 
placing a very painful burden on our citizens, it is absolutely 
appropriate that the Federal Government play an increased role in 
helping our communities address the crime problem. Under this 
legislation the State of Vermont will receive at least $44 million 
dollars to hire more than 500 new Police officers; $6.5 million for 
drug and crime enforcement in our most rural areas; $3 million for our 
cities and towns to use in ways they feel useful, and $1.2 million for 
a variety of children's programs.
  Perhaps most important to me, however, this crime bill will provide 
$8 million dollars to Vermont to allow us to deal with the epidemic of 
violence against women. In Vermont, there were six women murdered last 
year, and every single one of them was killed by an abusive spouse or 
partner--and God only knows how many other women were beaten and 
assaulted. This bill, through funding for a wide variety of services, 
will finally allow us to give women the protection that they have long 
been denied.

                          ____________________