[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 12 (Friday, January 20, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1265-S1266]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SILVI MORTON SPECTER
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, last night I spoke briefly on the one-
year anniversary of the birth of the next generation of the Specter
family, on the birth date of my granddaughter, the first grandchild in
our family, the daughter of my son Shanin Specter, and his wife, Tracey
Pearl Specter. But I could not speak at any length because we were in
the midst of working out the unanimous-consent agreement on the
disposition of this bill. And as the hour grew late, when we had
consecutive back-to-back votes as part of the efforts to reach an
accommodation on the bill, I did secure the floor for a few minutes, at
11:25, but spoke only briefly because the managers of the bill were
about to present the unanimous-consent agreement and there were many
Senators on the floor at the time.
I now speak to an empty Chamber with the exception of the Presiding
Officer. But this is a matter, I think, of importance beyond the birth
date of one young woman in America because I speak about all of the
children of America and Silvi Specter's generation.
We have a heavy burden, the Congress of the United States, and in the
U.S. Senate, to see to it that adequate care and protection will be
given to her generation. I focus on the balanced budget amendment which
has now been reported out of the Judiciary Committee, which will seek
to eliminate the deficit Federal spending which now approximates $200
billion a year and a national debt which is climbing toward $5
trillion.
We had debated the deficit and the national debt more in the 14
years-plus that I have been in the U.S. Senate than any other subject.
So frequently there has been agreement that the Federal Government
ought to live within its means just as every other unit of government
has to. The State governments, the city governments, the county
governments, and for that matter any individual has to live within his
or her means or they face bankruptcy. But at the same time we have
continued to spend. The promise of the balanced budget amendment is to
put the same discipline on Congress which every other governmental unit
in the past has had and every private citizen has. I think that is very
important for Silvi Specter's generation. Certainly, I would not think
of borrowing on her account or using her credit card. But that is
exactly what we are doing when we run up these deficits.
I think, too, about the primary duty of Government to protect its
citizens and the strides which are yet to be made on crime control
domestically and national defense on the international scene.
[[Page S1266]] We have a great deal to do, Mr. President, on the
basic issue of crime control. It is something that we have to address
for the present generation and succeeding generations.
I had the opportunity to serve as district attorney of Philadelphia
for some 8 years after having been an assistant district attorney for 4
years where I tried many robbery cases, many rape cases, many burglary
cases, and then as the district attorney ran an office which prosecuted
30,000 criminal cases a year including 500 homicide cases.
I believe that we have to tackle the problem of violent crime on many
levels. I think to start with, this is a major problem in our criminal
justice system in our failure to utilize capital punishment as an
effective deterrent against violent crime. It is obvious that the
critical aspect of a deterrent is its certainty and its swiftness. But
that is not the case with the death penalty. At the present time there
are more than 2,800 inmates on death row and in the last year only 38
cases where the judgment of sentence was carried out. The reason for
that is the Federal appeals processes which allow the cases to go on
virtually interminably forever; some as long as 20 years, on the
average 8 years. We have the power to correct that.
My legislation was passed by the Senate in 1990 and has a good chance
to be passed this year by the House and the Senate and signed into law
if we would make a few basic changes. First, provide that the
requirement ``upon exhaustion of State remedies'' is eliminated because
that means the case has to be litigated in the State courts until every
possible issue has been resolved before going to the Federal courts.
And then there is a ping-pong effect where it goes back and forth.
My legislation provides that there would be Federal jurisdiction
attaching as soon as the State supreme court had upheld the judgment of
sentence of the death penalty. Then there would be one hearing in the
Federal courts taking up all the issues without getting involved in
what is a full and fair hearing in the State courts, which leads to
interminable litigation, again with the State court taking it up and
then coming to the Federal court as to whether there had been a full
and fair hearing, which is an aspect of exhaustion of State remedies.
The Federal court ought to hear it once and once alone. If something
then arises at a later time which warrants exceptional circumstances
and unique Federal review again, that should happen only if the court
of appeals approves it; that is, submission to Federal judges.
There also ought to be a time limit of 120 days in the Federal
district court, unless the judge is able to put on the record factors
which require a longer period of time, and that should be within the
discretion of the trial judge. But I have handled these cases in the
Federal court on habeas corpus, and 120 days is long enough, providing
the judge puts it at the top of the list. That would not be an undue
burden where only one of these cases would come before a judge every 18
months. There should be time limits in the court of appeals so that
this appellate proceeding could be concluded within 2 years instead of
20 years.
Then, Mr. President, I think it is necessary to look at realistic
rehabilitation. It is no surprise when someone leaves jail without a
trade or a skill, as a functional illiterate, to go out into society,
they are back to a life of crime and a revolving door. What I think we
need to do is to have early intervention, especially with juveniles,
for literacy and job training to give them a chance. But if they become
career criminals--that is, three major offenses--then I think it is
fair for society to impose a life sentence and to carry it out with
adequate prison space.
Just the day before yesterday in the city of Philadelphia there was
an atrocious murder a block and a half from the Philadelphia police
station where a car was stopped. Apparently the individual was being
followed on a robbery attempt, and a cold-blooded murder at 5:23 in the
afternoon a block and a half from the police station at 7th and Vine in
Philadelphia. A man was shot down in cold blood.
This happens again and again with drive-by shootings, with people
being at risk. Violent crime could be curtailed if we really took the
steps necessary to do that. That is something we ought to be looking at
for this generation, the next generation, and those which follow.
There is also a major problem in international issues with national
security. From the position that I have just taken on as chairman of
the Intelligence Committee, there is a real need to do more in the area
of nuclear nonproliferation. There is grave concern about the agreement
which the administration has just made with North Korea where we will
not be inspecting the spent fuel rods for some 5 years; whether this is
the best way to protect against whether North Korea is in fact
proceeding to build nuclear weapons. It has been disclosed recently
that North Korea and Iran are working jointly on ballistic missiles and
that North Korea currently has the capacity to send a missile as far as
Alaska. When we asked the director of the Central Intelligence Agency
in hearings a week ago Tuesday what the prognosis was for reaching the
continental United States, there can be no assurance. A great deal more
has to be done in that respect.
The issue of nutrition is of enormous importance. I was shocked more
than a decade ago on my first occasion to see a 1-pound baby, a human
being about as big as the size of my hand weighing 1 pound. That is a
human tragedy because those children carry scars for a lifetime, and
frequently the lifetime is not too long because of the intensity of the
injuries carried. And it is a financial disaster with more than
$150,000 in cost for each child and multibillion dollars in costs.
It is a matter which can be corrected with prenatal visits as
outlined by Dr. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General, in part of a
health care package which I have proposed in Senate bill 18.
As I think about the tragedy of low-birthweight babies or the tragedy
of teenage pregnancies, as I think of my granddaughter, Silvi Morton
Specter, who lives surrounded by love with her mother, Tracey Pearl
Specter--a professional woman in her own right, but her daughter comes
first--as I see them playing together--in effect, I say that Tracey is
Silvi's best playmate--it is a sight to behold and really a tragedy
that all children do not have the affection that Silvi has from her
doting mother and doting father, my son Shanin Specter, and her
grandparents, Carol and Alvin Pearl and Joan and myself.
So I take a few moments on this Friday afternoon to talk about Silvi
Morton Specter's generation and the obligations we have here on
personal safety from violent crime at home, the problem of nuclear
attack abroad, and the issue of not spending to burden Silvi's
generation on the problems which children face everywhere. It is a real
burden that we face and a real obligation that we have to do a better
job as Senators and Members of Congress as we look forward to the 21st
century. It is my own personal view that America has not seen its best
and brightest days.
I think of my father, who came to this country as an immigrant from
Russia at the age of 18 in 1911 without any formal education, and my
mother, who came with her parents from Poland in 1905 at the age of 5,
and how much better it has been for my brother, my two sisters and me,
and how much better it has been for my two sons, Shanin and Steve, and
how much better it can be for Tracey and for Silvi Specter's generation
if we do our jobs in the U.S. Congress.
I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.
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