[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 124 (Thursday, August 25, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                                  VOTE

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate 
that debate on the conference report accompanying H.R. 3355, the 
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, shall be brought to a 
close? The yeas and nays are required. The clerk will call the roll.
  Mr. SIMPSON. I announce that the Senator from Wyoming [Mr. Wallop] is 
necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Akaka). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 61, nays 38, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 294 Leg.]

                                YEAS--61

     Akaka
     Baucus
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boren
     Boxer
     Bradley
     Breaux
     Bryan
     Bumpers
     Byrd
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Conrad
     Danforth
     Daschle
     DeConcini
     Dodd
     Dorgan
     Exon
     Feinstein
     Ford
     Glenn
     Graham
     Harkin
     Heflin
     Hollings
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Johnston
     Kassebaum
     Kennedy
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Mathews
     Metzenbaum
     Mikulski
     Mitchell
     Moseley-Braun
     Moynihan
     Murray
     Nunn
     Pell
     Pryor
     Reid
     Riegle
     Robb
     Rockefeller
     Roth
     Sarbanes
     Sasser
     Simon
     Specter
     Warner
     Wellstone
     Wofford

                                NAYS--38

     Bennett
     Bond
     Brown
     Burns
     Coats
     Cochran
     Cohen
     Coverdell
     Craig
     D'Amato
     Dole
     Domenici
     Durenberger
     Faircloth
     Feingold
     Gorton
     Gramm
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hatch
     Hatfield
     Helms
     Hutchison
     Kempthorne
     Lott
     Lugar
     Mack
     McCain
     McConnell
     Murkowski
     Nickles
     Packwood
     Pressler
     Shelby
     Simpson
     Smith
     Stevens
     Thurmond

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Wallop
       
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. If not, on this vote the yeas are 61, the nays 
are 38. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having voted 
in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to.
  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. DASCHLE. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on adoption of the conference 
report on H.R. 3355, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act 
of 1994.
  The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. SIMPSON. I announce that the Senator from Wyoming [Mr. Wallop] is 
necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
who desire to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 61, nays 38, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 295 Leg.]

                                YEAS--61

     Akaka
     Baucus
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boren
     Boxer
     Bradley
     Breaux
     Bryan
     Bumpers
     Byrd
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Cohen
     Conrad
     Danforth
     Daschle
     DeConcini
     Dodd
     Dorgan
     Exon
     Feinstein
     Ford
     Glenn
     Graham
     Harkin
     Heflin
     Hollings
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Johnston
     Kassebaum
     Kennedy
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Mathews
     Metzenbaum
     Mikulski
     Mitchell
     Moseley-Braun
     Moynihan
     Murray
     Nunn
     Pell
     Pryor
     Reid
     Riegle
     Robb
     Rockefeller
     Roth
     Sarbanes
     Sasser
     Simon
     Specter
     Wellstone
     Wofford

                                NAYS--38

     Bennett
     Bond
     Brown
     Burns
     Coats
     Cochran
     Coverdell
     Craig
     D'Amato
     Dole
     Domenici
     Durenberger
     Faircloth
     Feingold
     Gorton
     Gramm
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hatch
     Hatfield
     Helms
     Hutchison
     Kempthorne
     Lott
     Lugar
     Mack
     McCain
     McConnell
     Murkowski
     Nickles
     Packwood
     Pressler
     Shelby
     Simpson
     Smith
     Stevens
     Thurmond
     Warner

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Wallop
       
  So the conference report was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which 
the conference report was agreed to.
  Mr. BIDEN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware, the manager of the 
bill, is recognized.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, let me say that just prior to vote I was 
asked by one of the national journalists to answer the question why we 
seem to fight so much, Democrats and Republicans.
  I want to just point out some extraordinary thing that occurred 
totally unrelated to this vote. I think it is illustrative of 
notwithstanding how strongly we each feel about our positions on the 
issues that we still work together and are genuinely friends.
  During the midst of this vote, when the cloture vote began Cynthia 
Hogan, my chief of staff and the person quite frankly who deserves more 
credit for the passage of this bill than any, including me, said, 
``Senator, I would like to have you call an executive committee meeting 
off the floor.''
  Now the reporters who cover the Judiciary know what that means. That 
means we are going to have a meeting, a totally separate meeting in 
order to vote out of committee a total of 14 Democratic nominees for 
the circuit court of appeals, the district court, and U.S. Marshals and 
Justice Department personnel, all requiring confirmation of the Senate.
  I turned to Orrin Hatch, and I said, ``Orrin''--because you need 
Republican cooperation--``will you come off into the Vice President's 
room right over here and have an official meeting?''
  Our Republican colleagues, all but one because they did not know 
about it, marched off the floor. I called a meeting to order. We had a 
quorum, which means we have enough to be able to vote legally. I moved 
that all these people be approved. I have a list here. It is 14.
  I moved the nomination of these, all Democratic nominees. The 
Republican colleagues voted for it. And they are sent to the floor, 
instead of having to wait an entire month before we can get badly 
needed judges on the bench. There was cooperation here by our 
Republican colleagues.
  I do not want to overdraw that, but just it is the way that business 
works around this place with all the hollering and shouting and anger 
we sometimes display, because we are so wrapped up in the issues. We 
feel so strongfully about them. Nonetheless, in the end the peoples' 
business gets done.
  And I want to thank my colleagues.
  I am going to take another several minutes of the Senate to quite 
frankly not thank but pay tribute to the people who deserve the credit. 
It has always been referred to here this has taken 6 years.
  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, will the Senator yield a moment?
  Mr. BIDEN. I am delighted to yield.
  Mr. SARBANES. I know the Senator is going to give the credit to all 
those who helped him, and I know the hour is late. I will be very 
brief.
  Mr. President, I want to simply underscore again the extraordinary 
job of leadership which the distinguished Senator from Delaware has 
provided on this crime issue, not just now, but throughout this long 
process, the number of years in bringing us finally to the point where 
the Senate has enacted this very smart, tough, crime bill, and I just 
salute the distinguished Senator from Delaware, my neighbor as it is 
and my good friend for the extraordinary, extraordinary, committed, 
dedicated leadership he has provided throughout the consideration of 
this issue.
  Mr. BIDEN. I thank the Senator from Maryland.
  Let me talk about the people who do make this work. You know I read 
an article in the newspaper, and this goes to the Republican staff that 
I worked with on the committee as well.
  It was an article in our hometown paper that talked about not the 
Judiciary staff, but all staff people, how they all get paid too much 
money, and so on.
  I want to point out that the majority of my key staff people on the 
Judiciary Committee took pay cuts to take these jobs, substantial pay 
cuts, tens of thousands of dollars per year in pay cuts. And I think it 
is shown why we have such good people here because they are, in fact, 
committed.
  I want to start off and again pay tribute to the chief counsel of the 
Judiciary Committee, Cynthia Hogan. She is smart. She is tough. And I 
think I can say without any equivocation there is no Democratic or 
Republican Senator on this floor who does not respect her, and when 
they ask her themselves and she tells them they absolutely take it to 
the bank, absolutely just take it to the bank, and the most incredible 
and important currency in this body in this Senate is one's word.
  And you have no idea, Mr. President, how easy my job is when all I 
have to do is ask Cynthia Hogan. Right now I bet you there are 25 
Senators who can tell me Cynthia's office phone number without having 
to look it up because they are so accustomed to calling her and asking 
her her opinion or asking her for information, Republican as well as 
Democrat.
  So, Cynthia Hogan and the former chief of staff of this committee, 
who was in the beginning of this process a fellow who started from the 
beginning and who is not here. He is here in town. He works in town. He 
is a fine lawyer, and his name is Mark Gitenstein. He put together this 
original bill with me, and Ron Klain, who is now with the Justice 
Department. But it was brought home by Cynthia Hogan.
  I mentioned before, as a matter of fact, I saw an article in the 
paper today, that there is a woman on my staff named Demetra Lambros. 
Demetra Lambros stayed up ever night and these were averaging, if you 
averaged them 2 o'clock ever night, Saturday, Sunday, stayed through. 
Two of those nights were until 5 in the morning. And I come out of 
meetings at 5 in the morning in negotiations and see this lovely woman 
sitting on the marble stairs of the Capitol inside the Capitol with a 
note pad in hand and answering questions off the top of her head about 
complicated legal issues. And she was 4 days at that time overdue. She 
is due to give birth. She was 4 days overdue. She sat here on the floor 
until about 2 hours ago. She is on the floor back there now.
  You are supposed to be home.
  I have threatened to fire her. I have threatened everything to get 
her out of here, but she is so invested in this bill, and I hope I am 
not embarrassing her but she is now better more than a week overdue, 
and I think now that her child knows that the crime bill is passed the 
child is willing to come forth in a safer world because I want to tell 
you there has to be some reason why she is able to do this. She is an 
incredibly sharp lawyer.
  And Chris Putala--Chris has been someone again who everyone has come 
to rely on, not just me, all the Members of this Senate, particularly 
the Democratic Members. He is a first rate lawyer, a man who now when 
the police of this Nation and their organizations have any questions 
they do not even bother to call me. They call Chris because they know 
Chris speaks for me, and they know Chris knows of what he speaks, and 
they trust him completely. Again it is trust.
  And Ankur Goel is a new fellow on our staff, new this year, and he 
came from working with the Justice Department for the last I think 5 
years he had with the Justice Department and came over as a prosecutor 
and has provided invaluable service.
  I know this is boring to many people, but it is important to do this. 
I do not want to overstate this but I think this if not a historic 
occasion it is a significant occasion the passage of this bill.
  I want their children and grandchildren and parents and husbands and 
wives to know in the Record how much of a part they played.
  Mr. President, there was a young woman, one of more than a dozen 
children, who had worked her way through college, applied to Georgetown 
Law School, was admitted, a top student at Georgetown Law School, who 
started off as my appointments secretary, assistant appointments 
secretary, and she is now someone who has helped write this bill and 
pass the bill. Her name is Tracy Doherty. And do not be fooled, whoever 
ends up on the other side of her in the courtroom, by her young and 
lovely smile, this is one very bright, tough lady and did it all by 
herself.
  The idea that she would be on the floor, being relied upon by 
everybody when, only 2\1/2\ years ago, she was sitting there, doing a 
very important job, but having no knowledge of the criminal justice 
system.
  And by the way, she did all this while she was still going to school. 
She was doing it full time and going to school.
  And Andrew Plepler. Andrew is new--new in the sense that he has been 
here for this bill.
  Adam Gelb.
  I have to get my glasses on to make sure I do not leave anybody out.
  Jenna Nober, Mimi Murphy, Lisa Monaco, John Earnhardt, Rick Mihills, 
Linda Belachew, Susanne Smith, and Joel Vengrin, all of my staff.
  And Larry Spinelli of my staff and Jennifer Vollen, who are the ones 
who had to answer all the questions by everybody about the staff.
  And the minority leader's staff--and I feel like the phrase used on 
this floor today a number of times by my Republican friends--hijacked. 
They talked about bills being hijacked and ideas.
  Well, I have hijacked truly outstanding staff people in this Senate, 
Anita Jensen and Abby Saffold, and also the entire floor staff here. 
And I am reluctant to give them back. They have made me look better 
than I deserve. I thank them for that.
  And the ultimate staff person I would like to thank is the majority 
leader.
  As I said in a press conference today--and I tell a tale on myself 
here. Last night, as we were going in the final throes of this matter, 
calling every one of the Senators to see where they were on the 
Democratic side, he turned to Cynthia Hogan, chief counsel, and said, 
``Let me write some talking points for him,'' which is what staff 
people do. He gave me a four-sentence summary of what I should say to 
Senators. I looked at him, I said, ``George, this will never work.''
  The first three people I called, all hard cases on this issue, I read 
it, and they said yes. And that was it. They went back to sleep.
  So I thank him for his brilliant staff assistance.
  And also again, members of Senator Hatch's staff, who we work with 
every day and who are first rate. They may not want me mentioning them, 
but I think they know how much respect I have for them personally.
  Mark Disler, who is the No. 1 man over there. And Manus Cooney. It 
seems like Manus and I have been doing crime bills for ever and ever. 
Sharon Prost, who has been involved in this for years. And Larry Block 
and Mike Kennedy.
  And on Senator Dole's staff, Dennis Shea.
  The thing about dealing with all of them, even though we disagreed, I 
never have to wonder. When I ask them what the deal is, if they cannot 
tell me, they do not tell me. If they can, whatever they tell me is 
what it is.
  And, as the Presiding Officer knows, there is, as I said, currency in 
this place. The people you want to deal with are the people, when you 
speak to them, you know what they tell you is exactly what they are 
going to do.
  Mr. President, as I said on the floor throughout this week, there is 
more than one group of people responsible for helping me put this crime 
bill together.
  I want to point out one very important thing. That many of the 
provisions in this bill, if not the majority of the provisions in this 
bill, are original ideas and thoughts of Senators on this floor in both 
political parties. I do not claim to have had the wisdom, knowledge, or 
foresight to be able to think of the things that are in this bill that 
I think will make a difference in people's lives.
  The only thing in this bill that I wrote from scratch was the 
Violence Against Women Act. That was a small part of this. Maybe that 
is why I was so emotionally attached to it. But for every other good 
idea in this bill, there is a Senator here--and including that one, as 
well--there is a Senator here who can rightfully claim, Democrat and 
Republican, that they were the ones that came to me.
  One other thing I want to mention. For the past 6 years, the Nation's 
law enforcement officers and the representatives of their major 
organizations have basically lived in my office. They have become my 
friends. They have become people who I have learned to and come to know 
well and expect whatever they say, that is it. I hope and think they 
feel the same way about us.
  I will miss them camping out in my conference room at 2 and 3 in the 
morning. I will miss seeing them as much as I do. But I will not miss 
the fact that we have to go through this again. And for the past 6 
years, these law enforcement officers, representing the Nation's 
500,000 police officers, sat in my office, around a conference table, 
working late into the night to craft a crime bill that was so 
desperately needed by America's front-line crime fighter.
  I ask unanimous consent that the names of each of these law 
enforcement organizations be printed in the Record, Mr. President.
  There being no objection, the list was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

       Fraternal Order of Police (FOP).
       National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO).
       International Brotherhood of Police Officers (IBPO).
       National Sheriffs' Association (NSA).
       International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP).
       National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives 
     (NOBLE).
       National Trooper's Coalition.
       Major Cities Chiefs.
       International Union of Police Associations (IUPA).
       Police Foundation.
       Police Executive Research Forum (PERF).
       Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA).

  Mr. BIDEN. But, more important than the names of each of these 
organizations, are the individuals who are able, creative, and talented 
leaders of these organizations. Each of them represent their membership 
with great distinction and dedication. And each of them has helped 
deliver to the Nation's police officers more assistance, more life-
saving assistance, more support than any other piece of legislation I 
can remember in my 22 years in the U.S. Senate.
  Indeed, in the past 10 months, these individuals, representing the 
Nation's police, have helped bring unprecedented change to the 
country--passing the Brady bill into law, which is now law tonight; 
passing the assault weapons ban, and passing a fully-funded crime bill 
which will add 100,000 police to the ranks, build 125,000 more prison 
cells, and extend a helping hand to literally millions of America's 
children throughout this Nation through such proven programs as Police 
Athletic Leagues, Boys and Girls Clubs and many other projects.
  I have said on the floor, and I meant it sincerely, in the heat of 
the debate, these are the women and men who suggested to me and others 
the prevention programs that should be placed in there. And I have 
great respect for social workers. We should be doing more in that area. 
But they did not come from a group of social workers coming in and 
sitting down with me. They came from a bunch of hard-nosed cops who 
know the street, know the problems, coming in and setting down and 
saying, ``Joe, this is what we have to do.''
  So, I thank them because they know better than we do, than I do 
anyway, what the needs are. And I think it is, if not rare, at least 
rare in what I have worked on over the years, that we actually ask the 
people most affected and say, ``What do you need?'' And they told us. 
And the overwhelming majority of the U.S. Senate and the House of 
Representatives voted to give them what they believe they needed 
tonight.
  Now, individuals in this group include--and I have to say, you know, 
they are all equals--but the first among equals has been, in my view, a 
guy named Bob Scully. Bob Scully has been a stand-up guy. Every time we 
have had a problem, he stood there and he has taken heat. And he has 
been willing to stand up.
  But others have been equally as involved in the entire process. Tom 
Scotto, Ken Lyons, Chris Sullivan, Richard Boyd, Steven Brown, Dewey 
Stokes; ``Bud'' Meeks, who I have spent an awful lot of time with; 
Melinda Lund, Jim Rhinebarger; Johnny Hughes, of the troopers; 
Sylvester Doughtry.
  What is Mark's last name? For years I have been talking to Mark. It 
is amazing. I have known Mark for so long--and I do not know whether 
you all have this problem--I have known him for many years and called 
him Mark but did not realize his last name was Spurrier.
  Dan Rosenbalt, Ira Harris, Dick O'Byski, John Pitta, Don Cahill, and 
many, many others.
  I count each of these individuals--many of whom are, as we would say 
in campaigns, card-carrying Republicans--as my friends. And, quite 
frankly, we could not have delivered such a sweeping crime bill to the 
American people without their help.
  I thank all of them for their timeless effort and I hope that our 
collective efforts, of the police and my staff and others in this body 
who have spent so long trying to put this together--I sincerely hope 
that what we have done is a good thing for the American people. I 
sincerely believe what we have done is a good thing for the American 
people.
  But the beauty of this is, if in fact we find 2 years down the road 
that a particular program is not working the way we intended it to 
work, this is a trust fund. For 6 years, we have made this commitment. 
The chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Byrd, has pointed 
out if a particular program is not working, through the appropriations 
process, we can change it.
  The important thing tonight is we have made a commitment to the 
American people and the law enforcement community of this Nation that 
we were going to, as a Federal legislative body in the Federal 
Government, provide what they asked for--a $30 billion 6-year 
commitment to put police and prisons and prevention programs back in 
the cities, none of which was controlled by the Federal Government. The 
only piece of this entire bill controlled directly by the Federal 
Government is the money for Federal prosecutors and Federal law 
enforcement officers, and money for drug treatment in Federal prisons--
an important part, but not the main part of this bill.
  So it is my sincere hope, and my even more sincere belief, if that is 
possible, that we did a good thing tonight; that we did a good thing 
for the American people. One of my colleagues--and I will conclude with 
this statement--said to me, ``Joe, what do you think about putting up 
with''--and he was not talking about my colleagues, just putting up 
with, and I do not view it as ``putting up''--but ``putting up with 
being in public life? Is it worth it?''
  I said, ``These are the nights it is worth it.'' It is worth it 
tonight, because whether I am right or wrong, and only time will tell, 
I truly believe with all my heart we did something good. As a friend of 
mine would say, ``We did something serious good'' for the American 
people tonight. I hope that proves to be true.
  I thank everyone for their cooperation and their indulgence. I know 
we have gone a long time, and I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Levin). The Senator from Kentucky [Mr. 
Ford] is recognized.
  Mr. FORD. Mr. President, just one comment or two. I think the words 
have been spoken tonight: ``Sincere,'' ``effort,'' ``dedicated'' and 
``good support.'' I think the American people will be much better off 
when we see the result of the long labor--you might say a labor of 
love, but I do not think I could categorize it that way--but it is has 
been a labor of interest and sincere desire to make life a little 
better, not necessarily for ourselves but for our children and the 
future. That is what it is all about.

                          ____________________