[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 121 (Monday, August 22, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 22, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                             THE CRIME BILL

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I noted over the weekend that the House of 
Representatives has passed the crime bill conference report. I intend 
to vote for the crime bill conference report when it comes to the 
Senate.
  I watched the debate over the last 10 days or so on the crime bill 
and, as is usually the case, political debate is stretched so thin you 
can often see through it. There are, I think, merits on both sides of 
the questions that have been raised about this crime bill. Those who 
say there was too much spending in it may be right. There may be some 
valid arguments that in certain areas of spending it could be trimmed 
back--and was. Those who argued that the other side was calling 
legitimate prevention programs pork were right as well. But the fact is 
the conference committee has worked its will on the bill and it has now 
gone to the House and will come to the Senate. I hope very much the 
Senate will adopt the conference report.
  It is important for us to understand the U.S. Congress passing a 
crime bill will not solve the crime problem in this country. That is 
going to be solved by individual responsibility and by people in the 
communities, in the homes and the neighborhoods, in the cities and the 
States. But we can help. We can do some things that are constructive 
that will honestly help, and we do that in this bill.
  Well over 90 percent of the crime in this country is committed and 
prosecuted and investigated in the jurisdiction of local governments, 
so it is not in most cases a Federal crime. Less than 10 percent of 
crimes are involved with Federal jurisdiction. That is why I say we 
ought to understand that this bill in itself will not stop crime. But, 
the bill does address some very chronic issues that people around the 
country know about and that local governments face.
  A substantial amount of the violent crime in this country is 
committed by a very small minority of the criminals. About two-thirds 
of all violent crime in America is committed by about 8 percent of the 
criminals. These are criminals who adopted crime as a career, and they 
understand and we understand that prison for them has become a 
revolving door. They are in and they are out and in and out and back on 
the streets far too quickly--to victimize another innocent American 
once again. This bill starts to get tough with them and says three 
strikes and you are out.
  It says let us open up some hard core prison cells by putting 
nonviolent prisoners in some nonviolent facilities with barbed wire and 
put violent criminals in secure cells and keep them there.
  Does this bill have some prevention programs in it? Yes, it does. But 
does anybody doubt people who are addicted to drugs and are involved in 
a life of crime have to get off the addiction if they are going to 
cease the crime? The fact is, we have far more addicts who seek 
treatment for drug addiction than we have places to give drug addiction 
treatment and counseling, and this bill addresses part of that.
  Is that pork? Is that unnecessary spending, when somebody who wants 
to shed a drug addiction goes to a center and they say, ``Sorry, we 
don't have any room. We can't take you. Take your addiction back on the 
street, commit more crime''? That is what is happening. It is not pork 
to have a prevention program in the crime bill to provide more 
addiction treatment, more addiction counseling for those who are 
addicted to drugs.
  I hope my colleagues in the Senate will understand this is a good 
crime bill and one that we really ought to pass this week and one I 
think will advance the interests of this country in fighting this 
epidemic of violent crime.

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