[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 76 (Tuesday, May 25, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H3510]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              BRING JUVENILE JUSTICE BILL TO THE FLOOR NOW

  (Mr. MENENDEZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, sending one's child to school should not 
take an act of courage. When children have died, when students have 
been shot sitting in class or studying at the library, when schools and 
communities have been torn apart, and when every American parent now 
worries when they send their children off to school, it is time for us 
to act. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not next month. Now. Today.
  There is a juvenile justice bill ready for us to consider that at 
least begins to address the school violence issue. Why will the Speaker 
not take up this bill? Is it because the NRA does not want him to? Is 
it because the far right in his party will not let him?
  Whatever the reason, Mr. Speaker, it is not good enough. With 13 
children dying each day from guns and with that gun violence spilling 
into our schools, his reasons are not good enough.
  Let us protect our children and bring up the juvenile justice bill 
today. Not tomorrow. Not next month. Not another day. Not another life. 
But today.

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