[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 116 (Wednesday, August 17, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 17, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                      DO NOT CHANGE THE CRIME BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from New York [Mrs. Maloney] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I was privileged to stand side 
by side in New York City with the Attorney General of the United 
States, Janet Reno, the Governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, the police 
commissioner of New York City, William Bratton, the U.S. attorney for 
the southern district of New York, Mary Jo White and my colleague Chuck 
Schumer, to urge the House to pass the omnibus anti-crime bill with the 
ban on assault weapons.
  I want to congratulate President Clinton and Attorney General Reno 
for their strong fight to pass the crime bill.
  Clearly, in New York and across the country, guns and crime are out 
of control.
  Most New Yorkers have feared for their lives at one time or another.
  A few years ago, three armed thugs broke into my home, physically 
attacked my daughter, my husband, and me.
  We escaped that attack with our lives.
  Others have not been so lucky.
  Many of us remember all too well the horrible attack on religious 
leaders driving across the Brooklyn Bridge.
  This attack was carried out by a crazed man with an assault weapon; a 
weapon that the crime bill would ban.
  Crime is so bad that one of New York's daily newspapers publishes a 
daily count of how many of our citizens were shot and killed the day 
before; 621 have been gunned down this year; 5 people were killed on 
Monday. One was a 13-month-old infant shot to death while he slept in 
his mother's arms.
  But last week, the House turned a deaf ear to those victims and their 
families by rejecting the Federal crime bill on a procedural vote.
  The crime bill contained more than $30 billion in Federal aid to 
localities to fight and prevent crime.
  After 12 years of declining Federal aid to the cities under previous 
administrations, this crime bill is undoubtedly one of the best pieces 
of Federal legislation for my city in more than a decade.
  And I want to congratulate Mayor Giuliani, who was here in Washington 
today to fight for this bill, for recognizing that there is no 
Republican or Democratic way to fight crime.
  Thanks in part to the mayor's input, the crime bill would provide 
millions of dollars to upgrade police equipment and computer systems 
and pay for overtime costs. This will allow more cops to get out from 
behind desks.
  The crime bill will provide millions for new prison construction. 
This will ensure that the bill's truth-in-sentencing provisions can be 
enforced so prison will not be a revolving door.
  The bill will root out crime with prevention programs, including 
keeping schools open after hours and on weekends, and providing job 
training and job creation in high-crime areas.
  To fight domestic violence, the bill will fund the Violence Against 
Women Act. Right now, if you assault a stranger, you go to jail. If you 
assault your spouse, you get therapy. The Violence Against Women Act 
brings an end to this backward system. It provides new Federal 
penalties for interstate spousal abuse and stalking.
  And it includes provisions to train the police in how to deal with 
domestic violence.
  Out of 178,000 radio calls to the police relating to domestic 
violence, less than 7 percent result in arrests.
  Clearly, we need to train our police better then we have been doing. 
This crime bill will accomplish that goal.
  The bill will fund model intensive grants that enable high-crime 
areas to implement comprehensive and intensive anticrime efforts.
  The bill requires mandatory drug treatment for prisoners; almost 
every expert agrees that drug rehab drastically reduces the number of 
repeat offenders.
  The bill requires drug courts for nonviolent drug offenders, freeing 
up court space for trying violent crimes.
  The bill creates local partnership grants that will provide Federal 
support for the unique, successful programs developed by each community 
to combat crime within its jurisdiction.
  This is not pork, it is prevention. And those who refuse to 
distinguish between the two are engaging in the most cynical kind of 
politicking.
  Mr. Speaker, some people say that the crime bill needs to be changed 
so that it will pass.
  Some have suggested stripping the assault weapons ban out of it. I 
say no, a thousand times no. It is a travesty that a narrow special 
interest, far out of step with the will of most Americans, is able to 
block this provision. If this Congress is unable to take assault 
weapons off the streets, then we should fly the white flag of surrender 
over the Capitol dome instead of the Stars and Stripes.
  I think this bill does not need to change. It is Congress that needs 
to change.
  It would be a crime to vote against it.

                          ____________________