[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 21 (Thursday, February 2, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H1144-H1145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           CRIME LEGISLATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Barr] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased and proud to report that the 
Committee on the Judiciary today concluded work after 3 days of markup 
and several days of hearings earlier in the month of January on a very 
important component of the Contract With America. And that is a series 
of pieces of legislation that will correct many of the deficiencies, 
serious deficiencies that were contained in last year's so-called 
anticrime bill, and go beyond that bill in many important respects.
  This bill, for example, Mr. Speaker, says that no longer will police 
have their hands tied in cases where there may be a technical 
violation, an unknowing violation of certain constitutional provisions. 
But if they, in good faith, rely on objective information and can 
satisfy a magistrate or a court of that reliance objectively, that the 
evidence will go in and that individuals who are guilty will not be 
back out on our streets.
  Further, Mr. Speaker, this new crime bill which will make its way to 
the floor, hopefully next week, and receive the imprimatur of this 
great body, says, no longer will our death penalty system be the 
laughing stock of this country, that for the very first time in many 
years people can look up to that system and say, yes, it does mean 
something.
  Habeas corpus will no longer be abused in our Federal system.

                              {time}  2040

  The system will work better for the people, for the victims, and for 
all of us.
  Mr. Speaker, this crime bill says that those in a position to know 
what our law enforcement needs are in our communities all across this 
land, that those who are in a position to determine how best to meet 
those needs, will in fact once more be in charge of meeting those needs 
insofar as Federal moneys coming back to the States and the local 
governments are concerned.
  No longer will we have, as we had under the crime bill passed last 
year, a smoke and mirrors approach to law enforcement whereby we heard 
that 100,000 police officers will be on the streets, are on the 
streets, and will remain on the streets, because we know out on the 
streets that that was not true. It is not true, and it would not be 
true.
  This crime bill, Mr. Speaker, these crime bills that will make it to 
the floor, and which the Committee on the Judiciary, under the 
leadership of Chairman Hyde, concluded action on today, takes those 
Federal moneys, which are indeed the taxpayers' moneys of this country, 
and turns them back to the States and the local governments and says:

       We recognize that you must determine, you are in the best 
     position to determine, how those funds ought to be spent, how 
     your needs in your community ought to be met to further the 
     objectives of law enforcement and prevention.

  It does this, Mr. Speaker, through a block grant program.
  Further, Mr. Speaker, it goes on to say:

       In the area of incarceration there are two and only two 
     ways to ensure that those who deserve to be in jail are in 
     jail and remain in jail. More prisons must be built, and this 
     bill provides substantial funds to States to build more 
     prisons, if in fact the States have shown through a history 
     of reforms in their sentencing systems that more people are 
     being incarcerated, according to their laws, and for longer 
     periods of time, according to their laws.

  This bill also, Mr. Speaker, says that in those cases where States 
make significant progress toward instituting a system of incarceration 
and sentencing whereby inmates serve a full 85 percent, at least, of 
their sentence, which, after all, reflects not only the will of the 
people but the will of the juries and the will of the judges, that they 
will be eligible for additional grant moneys to build those prisons.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a realistic crime bill. Mr. Speaker, this is not 
smoke and mirrors. Mr. Speaker, this is a series of legislative 
proposals passed by the Committee on the Judiciary with input from very 
learned experts from all across this country, with substantial input 
from Members of this great body on both sides of the aisle that 
deserves careful attention, that deserves the votes of this body, so 
that it can get back to the decisionmakers in our communities what they 
need.
  [[Page H1145]] That is the power to determine whether those moneys, 
not in the view of some bureaucrat in Washington but in the view of the 
elected officials and law enforcement officers in their community, 
should be spend on one program or another, prevention, law enforcement.
  That, Mr. Speaker, is precisely, is precisely, Mr. Speaker, why the 
results of the election on November 8 were so profound. The will of the 
people has been heard. It was heard in the halls of the Committee on 
the Judiciary this week, and will indeed result, I hope, Mr. Speaker, 
in passage of these important crime measures in just a few days ahead.

                          ____________________