[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 19 (Wednesday, February 3, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1133-S1134]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       PRESIDENT CLINTON'S ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE BUDGET CUTS

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, even as the Senate has been weighing 
historic matters, the important work of the Judiciary Committee has 
gone forward as well. I am pleased to report that the Judiciary 
Committee is working to develop an agenda that will continue the 
Senate's commitment to the American people to make our streets safe 
from crime, to ensure that the benefits of this great technological and 
communications age reach all our people unencumbered by artificial 
legal barriers, and to ensure that we preserve and protect the rule of 
law. I will have more to say in the coming days about this agenda. 
Today, however, I would like to focus my comments on what I believe are 
highly irresponsible cuts to administration of justice programs in the 
President's budget proposal.
  This year, criminal justice issues should and will once again require 
the attention of the Senate. Many of our communities are not sharing 
equally in the decline in crime rates. For instance, according to FBI 
data, while the rate of violent crimes decreased nationally by four 
percent in 1997, the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports demonstrate that in 
the Mountain West, the decline was only 2.4 percent, and my state of 
Utah posted a slight increase. Similarly, property crimes decreased 
nationally 3.1 percent, but only decreased one-half of one percent in 
the Mountain West. Again, my state of Utah actually had an increase in 
property crime. Compared to rates in the Northeast, the violent crime 
rate is 46.4 percent higher in the West and 52.1 percent higher in the 
South.
  And it is not just crime rates that need further improvement. The 
youth drug epidemic continues to plague us. According to the National 
Institute of Drug Abuse's Monitoring the Future surveys, drug use among 
our youth has grown substantially, and recent marginal improvement 
cannot hide the fact that more of our young people than ever are 
ensnared by drugs. From 1991 to 1998, the lifetime use of marijuana--
the gateway to harder drugs--has increased among school-age youth. The 
number of 8th graders reporting to have ever used marijuana has 
increased by 55 percent from 1991 to 1998, and the number of 8th 
graders who have used marijuana within the past year has increased by 
173 percent in that same time.
  Not surprisingly, then, use of harder drugs has also increased. The 
number of 8th graders who have used cocaine within the past year has 
increased by 181 percent from 1991 to 1998, and the number these 
students who have used heroin within the past year has increased by 86 
percent in the same time period. And significantly, 1997 to 1998, 
lifetime heroin use by 8th and 10th graders has increased by 0.2 
percent, meaning that the use of this deadly drug is still on the rise 
among our youth.
  Because we have so far to go in our fight against crime and drugs, I 
am particularly disturbed by the President's proposed budget for the 
Department of Justice. The Clinton budget provides only a marginal 1.6 
percent increase in DOJ funding for FY 2000. But even this slight 
increase pales compared to the massive cuts President

[[Page S1134]]

Clinton is proposing in assistance to state and local law enforcement. 
Let me alert my colleagues to what the President is proposing.
  Undisclosed by the Administration's spin machine and most media 
reports, President Clinton is proposing more than $1.5 billion in cuts 
to state and local crime fighting efforts. Among the programs on the 
President's chopping block is the entire Violent Offender and Truth in 
Sentencing Incentive Grant program. This program has, by any measure, 
been a tremendous success, providing critical seed money to states for 
bricks and mortar prison construction and thus making our streets 
safer.
  Incarceration deters crime. Dramatic and historic reductions in 
sentence lengths and the expectation of punishment from the 1950s 
onward fueled steep increases in crime in the Sixties, Seventies, and 
Eighties. Only after these incarceration trends began to be reversed in 
this decade, did crime rates start to fall also.
  The Violent Offender and Truth in Sentencing Incentive Grant program 
has been an important component of this effort. In response to federal 
assistance, states have changed their sentencing laws. As the 
President's own Justice Department reported just last month, because of 
this program, 70 percent of prison admissions in 1997 were in states 
requiring criminals to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence. The 
average time served by violent criminals has increased 12.2 percent 
since 1993. With such success, why would the President want to 
eliminate this program?
  And he doesn't stop there. Also eliminated in the President's budget 
is the highly successful Local Law Enforcement Block Grant program, 
which since 1995 has provided more than $2 billion in funding for 
equipment and technology directly to state and local law enforcement. 
The President wants to cut 20 percent from the Bulletproof Vest 
Partnership Grant Act, which he signed into law just last year, to 
provide vests to protect officers whose departments otherwise could not 
afford this life-saving equipment. The President wants to cut $50 
million from the successful and popular Byrne Grant program, which 
provides funding for numerous state crime-fighting initiatives, and he 
proposes funding changes that put this program at further risk in 
future budgets. The President wants to cut by $85 million funding that 
reimburses states for the costs of incarcerating criminal aliens. He 
wants to cut $4 million from the Violence Against Women program, and 
$12.5 million from COPS grants targeting violence against women. And 
the Clinton budget slashes the entire juvenile accountability block 
grant, which over the past two years has provided $500 million for 
states and local government to address the single most ominous crime 
threat we face--serious and violent juvenile crime.

  Mr. President, the recent gains of state and local law enforcement in 
the fight against violent crime are fragile, and have been based 
largely on the Congress's endless push to place the interests of the 
law abiding over the establishment of new social spending programs. 
Time and again, Congress has had to remind President Clinton that 
government's first domestic responsibility is to keep our streets and 
communities free from crime.
  From the earliest days of the Clinton Administration, the President 
proposed severe cuts in law enforcement. For example, in March 1993, 
the President took the unprecedented step of firing every incumbent 
United States Attorney, a move the Administrative Office of the U.S. 
Courts later said contributed to significant declines in federal 
prosecutions.
  In 1994, the President proposed cutting 1,523 Department of Justice 
law enforcement positions, including 847 in the FBI, 355 in the DEA, 
and 143 in U.S. Attorney's offices. Congress said no.
  In 1996, 1997, and 1998, the President has proposed cuts to state and 
local law enforcement assistance. Congress has said no.
  And ever since 1995, the President has wanted to use badly needed 
prison construction grants intended for bricks and mortar to fund drug 
treatment and other social programs not shown to have the same crime 
deterrent effect. Congress has said no.
  Now the President wants to cut the program entirely, and make further 
cuts in assistance to state and local law enforcement. Let me summarize 
these cuts:
  $50 million in Byrne grants for state and local law enforcement--Cut.
  $523 million in Local Law Enforcement Block Grants--Cut.
  $645 million in Truth in Sentencing Grants--Cut.
  $85 million for criminal alien incarceration--Cut.
  $250 million for juvenile crime and accountability grants--Cut.
  $4 million in Violence Against Women Grants--Cut.
  $12.5 million in COPS grants targeting domestic violence--Cut.
  Even the President's own COPS program--$125 million Cut.
  And what does the President want to fund? $200 million for a program 
to turn prosecutors into social workers, who ``focus on the offender, 
rather than the specific offense,'' and provide punishments such as 
recreational programs for criminals up to age 22 who commit violent 
offenses, including weapons offenses, drug distribution, hate crimes, 
and civil rights violations.
  It appears that Congress will have to say no again, and once again 
remind President Clinton that our government's first domestic duty is 
to protect the people from crime and violence. I will have more to say 
in the coming days about the President's budget and the Judiciary 
Committee's agenda, but suffice it to say, however, that I find 
President Clinton's budget for Administration of Justice spending is in 
need of significant attention.
  I intend to see that this budget and administration of justice 
programs get that attention. As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I 
would like to advise my colleagues that a priority of the Committee 
this year will be the reauthorization of the Department of Justice. 
Included in this will be efforts to address expiring authorizations 
from the 1994 crime law, a number of which have been vital to assisting 
state and local government in reducing crime. I hope and expect that we 
will consider, on a bipartisan basis, the important funding and policy 
questions inherent in this effort, so to ensure that the Department can 
continue into the next century its important mission of upholding the 
rule of law.
  We will hold a series of hearings, both in the newly established 
Criminal Justice Oversight Subcommittee and at Full Committee, with the 
goal being to ensure that the Department of Justice is making the most 
of the precious law enforcement dollars appropriated and that essential 
law enforcement priorities are being met for the American people.
  Mr. President, I appreciate my colleagues' attention. I look forward 
to working with them on these important matters. I thank the Chair, and 
yield the floor.

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