[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 122 (Tuesday, August 23, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 23, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        CORRECTION OF THE RECORD

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Thank you, Madam President.
  Madam President, I rise to correct the Record relative to the remarks 
of the distinguished Senator from California after my remarks on the 
floor earlier this evening.
  It was brought out that perhaps there was a discrepancy in the amount 
of prison money that was in the present bill versus the bill that the 
Senate passed.
  In fact, there is more prison building money in the Senate bill than 
the conference committee report that we are being asked to vote for now 
because in the Senate bill, of the $6.5 billion in prison money, $3 
billion was set aside for actual prison building with a truth-in-
sentencing requirement to be eligible for that amount.
  The other $3.5 billion could be used for other purposes, including 
boot camps and prisons rehabs, and that sort of thing. Whereas, there 
is more money under the title of ``prison building'' in the conference 
committee report. In fact, hardly any of that is actually required to 
be for prison building. In fact, of the $7.9 billion that is in prison 
building, $3.95 billion has total discretion to be used by the States, 
and the other $3.95 billion has other criteria for being able to use 
that money for prison building, which includes that increased percent 
of sentences, increased time spent in prison, some for 85 percent 
service for second time offenders. But, in fact, the actual prison 
building money was more in the Senate-passed bill than in this 
conference committee report.

  The second issue that was brought up by the Senator from California 
is that Republicans never mention the assault weapons ban. That is 
because even those of us who believe in the second amendment, and who 
believe that you cannot help the crime statistics by taking guns from 
law-abiding citizens, nevertheless supported this bill when the ban was 
put in it. The vote was 94-4 or 94-5 when the Senate bill passed, and 
it had the ban in it.
  So why should we be mentioning that? It does not mean that we do not 
believe in the second amendment, because we do. I am proud to be a 
believer in the second amendment. I am in Washington, DC, right now 
where there is a ban on handguns. I do not think that helps the crime 
rate in Washington, DC, and, in fact, it has not proven that taking 
guns from law-abiding citizens is going to help the crime rate. So I am 
happy to mention it. But it is just not an issue here because it was 
voted down by the Senate. The ban was put in, and many of us supported 
the bill anyway.
  So I wanted to set the record straight because there really is a 
difference in the Senate-passed crime bill and this conference 
committee report that really is not a crime bill, and I just do not 
want to pull the wool over the eyes of the hardworking American public. 
I think we can do better than that.
  I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.

                          ____________________