[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 29 (Tuesday, February 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1696]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


 SUPPORT THE JACKSON-LEE AMENDMENT TO THE LAW ENFORCEMENT BLOCK GRANTS 
                                  ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Meehan] is 
recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Speaker, last September the President signed the most 
comprehensive, toughest, smartest crime bill in the history of this 
institution. It is a crime bill that put better than $10 billion to 
build new prisons and combined community policing, 100,000 new police 
officers with prevention programs that work. It has bipartisan support 
at that time, Republicans and Democrats signing on, Members of the 
other body, prominent Republicans signing on. It was a bipartisan bill.
  But, unfortunately for some people in this institution, the President 
apparently got too much credit for that bill. So now we have a new 
bill. This bill has a Republican label on it. It attempts to throw all 
the money from community policing into block grants and hope that 
county commissioners and school committee members and hope that city 
councils and local officials somehow become law enforcement 
professionals and spend the money the right way.
  Even though we have a history from 1968 where 33 percent of that 
money went to administrative costs, we are going to tinker and change 
this crime bill to take away the label of a Democratic bill or a 
President Clinton bill.
  Before I got to Congress, I was the first assistant district attorney 
in Middlesex County. Our office managed 13,000 criminal cases a year. I 
want to tell my colleagues, fighting crime is serious business. You do 
not fight crime by taking a political poll. You do not fight crime by 
listening to a focus group. And you do not fight crime by signing on to 
a document that is put together by political strategists. It is very 
serious business.
  The 100,000 new police officers on the streets, and the previous 
speaker talker about local governments having to match the money. 
Ladies and gentlemen, 95 percent of the crimes in this country are 
prosecuted and enforced by local government. In spite of any rhetoric 
or any spin you want to put on it, the Congress does not fight the 
majority of crimes in this country. Ninety-five percent of them are 
local district attorneys, local States attorneys offices and local 
police departments. They have that responsibility.
  This bill seeks to take some funds and get them focused on community 
policing, because, guess what? Community policing works. There have 
been studies over a period of 6 years, and I know from my own 
experiences as a former prosecutor, community policing works. Community 
policing is the most effective cutting edge law enforcement tool that 
we have. Yet because of politics, partisan politics, it appears we want 
to tinker with that process.
  It is working in my home city of Lowell, MA, where we have seen in 1 
year 13 additional community police officers opening up a precinct 
station in the city which has resulted in reducing crime dramatically, 
20 to 40 percent.
  Now, the new Republican majority has ignored facts about prevention 
programs, because they have found political profit in labeling them 
``pork.'' Apparently if you have the right sound bite, you can label 
prevention programs pork and it works politically. And after 
considering all of the information available, like studies, for 
example, law enforcement studies, I have a hard time figuring out why 
the new majority is so insistent on pushing this bill. It is bad for 
efforts to fight crime, it is a bad bill.
  I suspect the Republicans are feeling boxed in by the promises they 
made in the Contract With America. Their crime bill, like much of the 
contract's agenda, was drafted based on polls and focus groups. But, 
friends, what sounds good during a campaign and what makes sense in 
fighting crime for America, are two very different things.
  I know from experience. Republicans, like Gov. Bill Weld from 
Massachusetts, a former prosecutor, strongly supported this crime bill. 
The Republican DA in Suffolk County, Ralph Martin, strongly supports 
the Democratic crime bill, the Clinton crime bill. And I believe that a 
majority of Republican Members know it as well.
  A major test of the Republican Party's ability to govern will be 
their willingness to admit that many of their campaign promises are 
unworkable. And to forge a consensus on what to do about it, judging 
from their work on crime offer the last couple of days, reality has yet 
to sink in.
  I urge my colleagues to take the data that is available from law 
enforcement professionals all across the country and not to tinker with 
this crime bill, to put in the prevention programs that work.
  What we face this week is serious business. Let us not tinker with 
this bill and hope the President is going to veto it. Let us take care 
of the business right here.

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