[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 115 (Tuesday, August 16, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 16, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                             THE CRIME BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
February 11, 1994, and June 10, 1994, the gentleman from New Mexico 
[Mr. Richardson] is recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.)
  Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished chairman of 
the caucus, the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Hoyer], to complete his 
very eloquent statement on the crime issue.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
  I had one additional quote I wanted to use of our President, Mr. 
Bush. As I said, he visited Prince Georges County, which inaugurated 
the midnight basketball. When he was there in Glenarden he said this, 
and I quote, ``Here everybody wins, everybody gets a better shot at 
life,'' President Bush also said on that April evening in 1991.
  That is what this crime bill is all about, a better and safer shot at 
life for our children and grandchildren.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope that we can stop the partisan propaganda and pass 
a tough, strong crime bill. The crime bill that we failed to approve 
the rule on last week was such a bill. We need to pass it. We need to 
do what America sent us here to do, to act and respond to the problems 
that confront them every day.
  Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his eloquence. 
I want to echo it. We need to pass the crime bill this week. Politics 
wounded the crime bill last week. The Republican leadership and special 
interests and others have tried to kill this bill, but it is not dead 
yet.
  It is our responsibility to bring it back, to stop the partisanship 
and to pass the crime bill. It is as simple as that.
  I have never seen President Clinton get so mad as he did after the 
bill went down. I have never seen him so energized, as he crisscrosses 
the country trying to rally national support for the bill. He is 
energizing the country. He is using the bully pulpit and he has already 
changed some votes.

                              {time}  1120

  Most importantly, Mr. Speaker, he is sending a message that the 
National interest has to override parochial and special interests. 
There is no more important issue that the American people want us to 
deal with than crime. If we go home for our recess without a crime 
bill, I could not enter a town meeting in New Mexico with my head held 
high, because I know that I, for one, would be ashamed that we have not 
acted.
  Mr. Speaker, let me make a comment about the social spending that 
some of my colleagues keep criticizing. The final passage of the crime 
bill, not the conference report, contained less social spending than 
the conference report. Why is that? Because in the conference report, 
the much-admired and positive program to fight violence against women 
was raised to $1.2 billion.
  Again, this talk about too much social spending in the conference 
report rings very hollow when close to 260 Members of the House, 
including many on the other side, voted for some of these programs when 
it came to final passage of the bill.
  Mr. Speaker, it is clear that politics killed this bill. Last week in 
my congressional district a 21-year-old woman was burtually strangled 
to death in her home in one of the smallest and most rural areas of my 
State. Years ago, shocking crimes such as this were unheard of in 
Portales, NM. Now these crimes are occurring in small towns like 
Portales throughout the country, without regard to race, population, or 
wealth.

  The bottom line is that crime is everywhere, and I am amazed that 
some of my colleagues have not yet listened to the pleas of the 
American people, in big cities and small, that we do something about 
this.
  How about those who say that this crime bill is not tough enough? 
With three-strikes-and-you're-out, death penalty statutes, money for 
more prisons, which mandates that violent offenders serve at least 85 
percent of their sentence, I think that this anticrime bill is very 
tough on criminals.
  Mr. Speaker, let us end the politics. Let us pass this crime bill. 
Let us get it done this week.

                          ____________________