[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 112 (Friday, August 12, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 12, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1050
 
                          THE CRIME BILL VOTE

  (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, I have heard a number of people out here 
today say to us that somehow the vote yesterday was to kill the crime 
bill. It was not. It was a vote on the rule. It was vote down on the 
rule.
  Republicans voted against the rule, most of us at least, because we 
believe that there is way too much social welfare spending in this 
bill. It is a backdoor way that some folks on the other side of the 
aisle have found to try to get more great society programs into 
legislation in the law.
  There is a simple way to solve the problem that we face now and have 
a truly bipartisan crime bill all of us want. There is no reason why we 
should be concerned about doing that. It would take a few hours to sit 
down and do it. If some reasonable people on both sides of the aisle 
were called together, I am a conferee, was a conferee, would like to go 
back and do it again, take $5 billion or $6 billion out of this $9 
billion of pork and social welfare spending that is in this bill and 
put it over into the prison side where it should be. Add to the prison 
money that is there so that we get enough money in the prison grant 
programs that we can actually do what we have been told is necessary to 
have $10.5 billion to $12 billion in order to provide enough money to 
the States to build the prisons beds necessary to take the repeat, 
second-time violent offenders off the streets and throw away the key.
  That is what we need to be doing for prevention. That is the true 
crime prevention.

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