[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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