[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 120 (Sunday, August 21, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                             THE CRIME BILL

  (Mr. EHLERS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Speaker, since I am also from Michigan, I would first 
like to add to the previous speaker's comments. In addition to the 
number he quoted, Michigan is a loser by several hundred million 
additional dollars, because we have already built all our new prisons 
and therefore we will not get a cent from the bill to construct 
prisons.
  I would also like to clarify todays debate by reading from an 
independent source. We have heard a lot of debate here this morning, 
but a few additional aspects have to be pointed out.
  In a column by Richard Cohen in the Washington Post on August 17, he 
starts out:

       If Bill Clinton were a legislative package, he would be the 
     crime bill. Both liberal and conservative, lacking a core 
     concept, oversold and possibly underfunded, it is the 
     legislative version of the famous pudding Winston Churchill 
     would not eat because he said it lacks theme. It is a 
     political response to a political problem that, if enacted, 
     will leave the streets no safer than they are today.

  He then concludes by saying:

       The problem with the crime bill is that it has no animating 
     doctrine. It is so at odds with itself that if it were a 
     person it would be institutionalized as schizophrenic. That 
     sometimes happens to legislation that has to appease both 
     liberals and conservatives, lynchers and death penalty 
     opponents, and the opportunists in Congress with needy alma 
     maters. But when Clinton makes it his legislative Alamo, when 
     he retroactively elevates it to a core campaign issue, 
     exactly what is he fighting for? The appearance of the thing, 
     it seems. A political issue, crime, is met with a political 
     solution.

  I urge that we develop a workable solution, not a political one.

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