[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 119 (Saturday, August 20, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 20, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                             THE CRIME BILL

  (Mr. VENTO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Speaker, the efforts to undo or to attack the changed 
policy with regards to the crime bill, obviously with political spin 
and distortion, seem to be still rampant this week as Members try to 
explain away their vote, voting against a $33 billion bill last week to 
help fight crime.
  All of a sudden, the $8.8 billion in this bill and the 25 percent, 
the 50 percent matching funds, according to the National Rifle 
Association, who, of course, is very interested only in the police on 
the street, point out they are trying to distort and say it is 20,000.
  I think we ought to sit down with a pencil and paper and see and add 
up, as most of us could do, it indicates $150,000 for each of the 
100,000, each of the 100,000 police in blue that will be on the street. 
So it does not take a rocket scientist but it does take a lot of 
political science here to modify the facts and to make them something 
that they are not.
  The effort here is to distort; the effort is to defund. The effort is 
to disarm this bill, to take out the assault weapons and to defeat the 
bill. That is what the effort is. The effort is to turn it into a 
partisan circus, which is something the American people do not want. 
The American people want this bill passed. It is the number one issue. 
They want help in their local communities. They want help in terms of 
dealing with the violence taking place and the carnage on the streets 
from these assault weapons.
  One constituent, when asked, what do you use these for, said to hunt 
prairie dogs.
  Mr. Speaker, I am on the side of the prairie dogs and the people. I 
do not think we need those assault weapons on the street.

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