[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 39 (Wednesday, March 20, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E392-E394]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              FIGHTING CRIME TO PROTECT THE AMERICAN DREAM

                                 ______


                          HON. JON CHRISTENSEN

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 19, 1996

  Mr. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, a long shadow is falling over Nebraska. 
Slowly, the shadow is blotting out the sunny streets and parks where 
children play. It's blotting out the moonlight where couples walk, 
carefree. It's even blotting out the warm, welcoming glow of our own 
houses at night.
  That shadow is crime, and after many years of thinking it can't fall 
on us here--it has. The violence that trails gangs and drugs like a 
vicious dog drove homicides in Omaha to an all-time high in 1995. There 
were 41 killings last year in Omaha, 8 more than 1994. Omaha's police 
made nearly 20 percent more juvenile arrests in 1995 than in 1994. And 
the shadow even claimed the life of one of our brave men in blue. As 
Ronald Reagan once said, our police patrol ``the thin blue line that 
holds back a jungle which threatens to reclaim this clearing we call 
civilization. No bands play when a cop is shooting it out in a back 
alley.'' Certainly none play when he can't even fire back.
  We may have been free from the worst crime for many years, but now we 
must turn and face the shadow, and drive it back.
  Today I want to talk about how I think we can restore safety to our 
streets and sanity to the system. I'm fighting hard to protect the 
American dream. An essential part of that dream is the freedom from 
fear. We must have safe streets and secure schools, and I believe that 
we can.


                           tough crime bills

  The fact is that moral principles--our values--underlie our criminal 
justice system. There's nothing wrong with these values, and we should 
never feel guilty about making those who violate those values pay. 
Theft is not some act of artistic or political expression. It is theft 
and it is wrong. Murder is not forbidden as a matter of subjective 
opinion. It is objectively evil, and we must stop it. No one but

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thieves and murderers benefit when we think otherwise.
  I've long argued for tougher punishment for those who prey on 
society. Back in 1994, I made my support for the death penalty a 
cornerstone of my bid for Congress. Since then, I've worked hard for 
tough crime legislation that made sure local law enforcement 
officials--and not Washington bureaucrats--decided how their funds were 
used.
  A year ago, we in the House of Representatives passed six tough bills 
aimed at combating crime. For instance, the House unanimously approved 
the Victim Restitution Act. The bill instructs courts in Federal 
criminal proceedings to require convicted offenders to pay restitution 
to their victims. The fact that we passed the Victim Restitution Act 
without a single dissenting vote tells me Congress truly has changed. 
Nowadays, we all agree that criminals should have to pay for their 
misdeeds--literally.
  The House also approved the Exclusionary Rule Reform Act, which would 
allow prosecutors in federal court to use evidence gathered by law 
enforcement officials acting in good faith. Today, criminals are 
frequently acquitted on technicalities, only because the officers 
investigating them unknowingly stepped over some arbitrary line. A typo 
on a warrant should never put a vicious criminal back on the street. 
This reform would help end that, while still protecting the rights of 
private citizens.
  We passed the Effective Death Penalty Act, to limit the number of 
appeals of convicted felons already on death row. Currently, those on 
death row can file almost unlimited appeals, tying up the courts and 
using the appeals process to escape their sentence. We've seen that 
again and again in Nebraska as vicious killers like Willie Otey and 
John Joubert cheat justice for decades.
  Fourth, the House passed the Violent Criminal Incarceration Act, 
which provided resources to states for prison construction and also 
contained truth-in-sentencing provisions intended to make convicted 
criminals serve more of the prison terms they are given.
  Fifth, we passed the Criminal Alien Deportation Improvements Act, 
which strengthens our ability to deal aliens who are convicted of 
serious crimes while they are in the United States. It's a shocking 
fact that our Federal prisons now hold more than 25 percent non-U.S. 
citizens. Since 1980, the number of alien inmates has skyrocketed 600 
percent. Why on earth should our States pay hundreds of millions of 
dollars a year to incarcerate foreign drug dealers?
  The House capped its action on crime prevention by passing the Local 
Government Law Enforcement Block Grants Act. This bill would provide 
resources to States and cities like Omaha for law enforcement and 
allows them to spend it in the most effective way for their area. It 
will help local police fight crime without Congress dictating from 
Washington the best way to do it. A program along those lines will 
allow Sarpy County police to go high-technology this year, putting 
laptops in squad cars to keep them on the beat more and at their desks 
less.
  All but one of these bills are waiting for approval in the Senate. 
But I'm not going to just stand around and wait for them. I'm going to 
be working to bring these bills up again in a revised form that 
addresses the Senate's concerns. And I'm going to work to see that the 
Senate brings these bills up. I believe that controlling crime is one 
key concern of Americans nationwide.


                     Christensen Prison Reform Bill

  Some say prisoners are overcrowded. Some say prisoners are 
uncomfortable. Some say prisoners are denied access to recreation.
  To them I say: So?
  For too long, liberal judges, slick lawyers and misguided policies 
have turned prisons into playhouses. To fix that, I've put together 
legislation that makes it clear once and for all that our prisons are 
not country clubs.
  First, the legislation would repeal all Federal prohibitions 
inhibiting or prohibiting the sale or shipment of prison-made goods. 
Simply put, this bill would give our Federal prisons the ability to 
require prisoners to produce goods and services that are actually 
demanded by market forces, as opposed to spending time on make-work 
projects such as busting rocks. Profits generated by the sale of such 
goods and services can then go to help reduce the costs of 
institutionalization and victim restitution, and take some of the 
burden off our overtaxed families.
  Moreover, the prison reform bill assesses a 25-percent levy on all 
prisoner wages, with: 5 percent going to reimburse the prosecuting 
agency for the cost of prosecution; 10 percent going to victim 
restitution, and 10 percent to a new fund created to help to protect 
our officers from violent criminals, and to help the families of peace 
officers killed in the line of duty.
  Second, the bill would institute a 48-hour-per-week work requirement 
for all Federal prisoners. If both parents in middle-class families are 
forced to work just to make ends meet, at the very least we should 
demand that those who have broken our laws and terrorized our families 
should put in an honest day's work.
  Third, the Christensen bill requires Federal prisoners to study at 
least 12 hours per week. Part of the role of the prison is to prepare 
convicted criminals to reenter society. It's not their choice whether 
to spend that time playing cards or getting their GED. It's ours.
  Fourth, the Christensen bill would prohibit the use of weight lifting 
equipment in Federal prisons by Federal prisoners. Why should taxpayers 
be forced to pay for criminals to become stronger and more deadly so 
that they can then prey upon our families and children upon release? 
Our prisons are not for recreation--they are for incarceration.
  Fifth, the Christensen bill would ban the use of televisions in 
Federal prisons, with a narrow exception for educational purposes. So 
long as just one Nebraska family can't afford the luxury of cable 
television, then not one Federal prisoner should either. It's time we 
quit treating our Federal prisons like Holiday Inns.
  Finally, the Christensen bill seeks an end to frivolous prison 
litigation. Inmates have claimed prisons have violated their rights to: 
Wear sunglasses; own soap on a rope; and eat off real china as opposed 
to paper plates.
  Try finding those rights in the Constitution.
  In my home State of Nebraska, inmates have sued claiming: a right to 
meals of his choice, complaining about soggy toast and cold hamburgers; 
cruel and unusual punishment because Nebraska taxpayers wouldn't pay 
for a nose job; and even a right to child pornography in prison, 
despite the fact that the inmate was serving a sentence for first 
degree sexual assault on a child and manufacturing child pornography.
  The bottom line is that these lawsuits are nuts, and they must stop. 
I believe this bill will make sure prisons are punishment, not 
playgrounds.


                     hard time for gun crimes bill

  Another bill I've been working on is H.R. 3085, the Hard Time for Gun 
Crimes Act.
  This bill would make it clear that the problem with guns in our 
society is not the guns but the felons who use them for a criminal 
purpose. It would do so by dramatically increasing the penalties for 
the possessing, brandishing, or discharging a firearm during the 
commission of a federal felony.
  For instance, under my bill, if you fire a gun during the commission 
of a Federal crime: If it's the first offense, you'll get 30 extra 
years in jail, If it's the second offense, you'll get a minimum 50 
extra years in jail.
  The key message is that we've had it with gun-related violence. 
Americans have zero tolerance for gun crime, so our justice system 
should too. Our families and children shouldn't be afraid to walk to 
school, go to the grocery store, and leave their windows open at night.
  I believe firmly that gun control is not crime control. Why would 
someone willing to commit murder respect gun control laws? Gun control, 
while often well-intentioned, has simply failed. We have over 22,000 
gun control laws on the books today. Yet the States with the toughest 
gun laws tend to have the highest crime rates, and those with the least 
gun laws tend to have the lowest. Controlling those who use guns in a 
criminal way is far more effective than cracking down on the vast 
majority of law-abiding citizens who own firearms for hunting and their 
own protection.
  That's why I think we should work to keep those who would misuse guns 
in jail. No more slick criminal defense attorneys pushing criminals to 
freedom through legal loopholes. No more soft sentences after teary 
speeches before the bench. No more legal gymnastics setting criminals 
free after a fraction of their allotted time in jail.
  My hard time for gun crimes bill sends a clear message: If you use a 
gun to commit a felony, plan on spending the next few decades behind 
bars--no exceptions.


                             welfare reform

  The bills passed by the House last year and just last week are aimed 
at fixing our desperately broken criminal justice system. I'd like to 
add my measures, which will both keep criminals in jail and make jail a 
punishment once again. I believe that as a package, these get-tough 
measures will transform America's attack on crime and make it effective 
once again.
  But before I close, I want to touch on one other major crime control 
initiative that I have supported from the beginning of my campaign. It 
may not always be presented as crime-control, but I believe strongly 
that it is. That initiative is welfare reform.
  Over the past 30 years, the rise in violent crime parallels the rise 
in families abandoned by fathers. High-crime areas also overlap with 
concentrations of broken families. One study indicated that a 10-
percent increase in the percentage of children living in single-parent 
households leads typically to a 17-percent increase in juvenile crime. 
According to policy analyst Patrick Fagan, ``In high-crime inner-city

[[Page E394]]

neighborhoods, well over 90 percent of children from safe, stable homes 
do not become delinquents. By contrast, only 10 percent of children 
from unsafe, unstable homes in these neighborhoods avoid crime.''
  And it is where welfare is most prevalent that families break up. If 
family break-up causes crime, and welfare causes family break-up, why 
do we keep kiting checks to destroy our most vulnerable communities? 
Reforming welfare is not just a matter of saving money--it is a matter 
of fighting crime. Reforming welfare is a moral imperative for those 
who care about our children's safety.
  Last year we worked hard to end welfare as we know it, to spring our 
Nation's most vulnerable members from the trap of dependency, sloth, 
and moral decay. The Personal Responsibility Act, as it was called, was 
a revolutionary proposal that delivered the true, tough welfare reform 
Americans have been demanding for so long. In spite of cries to the 
contrary, this legislation will improve the lives of the disadvantaged 
children trapped in today's collapsed welfare pit. Welfare reform will, 
over time, begin to heal the diseased underbelly of society. And as it 
does, I deeply believe the cancer of crime will begin to recede.
  The current welfare system is a cause, not a cure, of the ills 
afflicting inner-city America. Nothing could be more cruel to our 
Nation's children than a system which lures their parents into 
dependency, traps them in broke down public housing, and subsidizes 
failure, illegitimacy, and substance abuse. This system is hurting the 
very disadvantaged children it was intended to help--and turning ever 
more of them to a life of crime.
  The current welfare state fuels crime by paying poor people to break 
up their families, use drugs and alcohol, and abandon their 
responsibility for their own lives. Over half of the 5 million families 
on welfare remain trapped on it for 10 years or more.
  The Personal Responsibility Act I supported would end welfare as a 
way of life, both by requiring recipients to work for benefits after 2 
years, and by cutting off welfare altogether after 5 years. The measure 
would get even tougher with faceless Washington bureaucrats. It 
eliminated their bloated headquarters, turning the resources over to 
States to design programs that work at the local level. I want to make 
sure our money is used in Nebraska where it's needed, not Washington 
where all too often it's wasted. That way the resources can be used to 
lift families out of poverty, instead of anchoring them in it. The 
seemingly hopeless, pointless communities blasted by the top-down 
welfare state breed crime, and true welfare reform would allow Nebraska 
to heal those communities. We could save children not just from 
poverty, but from depravity.
  Moving to an opportunity society rather than a welfare state will 
favor families over illegitimacy, local control over Federal 
centralization, and responsibility over dependence. And, ultimately, it 
will fight crime by giving our poorest, most disillusioned children 
hope rather than handouts. The best way to fight crime is to have fewer 
children becoming criminals.
  Those who truly care about our safety--as well as our disadvantaged--
should come together to reform the failed Federal welfare state. I'll 
continue working hard to see that that gets done.


                               conclusion

  I believe that the new Congress and I have brought true change to 
Washington. I've worked hard to balance the budget for the first time 
in a generation to put the Nation back on track, just as I said I 
would. I've worked hard to clean up our broken court system, to stop 
the blight of runaway lawyers and rampant lawsuits crippling our 
Nation, just as I said I would. I've worked hard as your representative 
on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee to reduce the burden on 
hard-working Americans and job-creating businesses to restore the 
upward climb of our families and workplaces, just as I said I would. 
And I've tried always to keep my word, to restore the bonds of trust 
that make a democracy work--just as I said I would.
  This fight to bring Nebraska's values to Washington is well on its 
way. The day will come when the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue 
will have the courage to sign a balanced budget, welfare reform, and 
tax relief--and to keep his promises. But to restore the American dream 
for us and our children, none of this will be enough. What does a 
balanced Federal budget matter if Nebraska's children can't play in the 
streets? What consolation is the restoration of a good income to a 
woman who's lost her husband at the hands of a violent criminal? What 
do good jobs and opportunity matter if people are barricaded in their 
houses?
  That's why we need to come together as Americans to fight this shadow 
off. Men and women of all ideologies, all races, and all creeds agree 
that the shadow of crime has frightened our children long enough. I say 
those who care should work now--today--to restore our streets to 
safety. We should work now--today--to knit up our Nation's fraying 
social fabric. We should work now--today--to stop coddling criminals 
and start crushing them.
  I'm confident my colleagues will join me in this hard work, because 
it is hard work. And I also know that many Americans on the front lines 
of this battle are working far more effectively and bravely than any of 
us could to combat crime. But until more and more of our families live 
free from fear, and less and less of our children cry themselves to 
sleep, I also promise you this: No one will outwork Jon Christensen.

                          ____________________