[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 89 (Wednesday, July 12, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6574-S6576]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. ROBB:
  S. 2850. A bill to reduce illegal drug-related crimes in our Nation's 
communities by providing additional Federal funds to develop and 
implement community policing and prosecutorial initiatives that address 
problems associated with the production, manufacture, distribution, 
importation, and use of illegal drugs; to the Committee on the 
Judiciary.


       the community oriented policing services against drugs act

  Mr. ROBB. Mr. President, I have visited the Carver Neighborhood of 
Richmond in my state. This neighborhood is a low-income community that 
thanks to collaborative efforts among the community, city, and federal 
government, has seen a tremendous decrease in crime, helping to spur a 
major community revitalization.
  We've seen this trend more and more in cities and communities across 
America. Much has been accomplished in our efforts to revitalize our 
communities--but more needs to be done. We should build on our past 
successes and focus our resources on keeping our children safe and our 
neighborhoods free of fear. We should take what we know works and apply 
it in our fight against illegal drugs.
  It is in this spirit, Mr. President, that I rise to introduce the 
Community Oriented Policing Services Against Drugs Act. As part of our 
continuing battle against the proliferation of drugs in our nation's 
communities, my bill seeks to provide $500 million over five years in 
federal funds from the COPS Program to state and local law enforcement 
authorities across the country to eliminate or reduce drug crime in 
America. We know the COPS Program works, and I'm proud to have expanded 
it to provide our schools with more than 2,600 police officers to 
combat school violence.
  Specifically, this new program will provide federal funds to hire 
1,950 more police officers to enhance existing community policing 
initiatives throughout approximately 65 cities across the country. 
Newly hired police officers will be charged with developing and 
implementing community policing initiatives to combat the production, 
manufacture, distribution, importation, or use of illegal drugs in our 
communities.
  There are dozens of cities across the country, such as Richmond, 
Norfolk, and Williamsburg in my state, that are committed to providing 
a safe environment for citizens to live, work and raise a family but 
need additional resources to help eliminate drug trafficking and drug-
related crime, including violent crime. This legislation will build 
upon the successful COPS Program and focus an aspect of its community 
policing initiatives against the scourge of illegal drugs in our 
neighborhoods.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this legislation be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 2850

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Community Oriented Policing 
     Services Against Drugs Act''.

     SEC. 2. COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING SERVICES AGAINST DRUGS.

       Part Q of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe 
     Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796dd et seq.) is amended by 
     adding at the end the following:

     ``SEC. 1710. COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING SERVICES AGAINST 
                   DRUGS.

       ``(a) Eligible Community Defined.--In this section, the 
     term ``eligible community'' means communities identified by 
     the Attorney General under subsection (c).
       ``(b) Award of Grants.--The Attorney General may award 
     grants in accordance with this part--
       ``(1) to local law enforcement agencies located in eligible 
     communities, which shall be used for programs, projects, and 
     activities--
       ``(A) to hire additional community policing officers and 
     civilian personnel to aggressively investigate drug-related 
     crimes; and
       ``(B) to pay overtime to existing law enforcement officers, 
     to the extent such overtime is devoted to community policing 
     efforts with respect to drug-related crimes; and
       ``(2) to State and local prosecutors' offices located in 
     eligible communities and to prosecution programs in eligible 
     communities that augment community policing programs, which 
     shall be used to assist in the aggressive prosecution of 
     drug-related crimes.
       ``(c) Identification of Eligible Communities.--
       ``(1) In general.--The Attorney General shall identify 
     eligible communities for purposes of subsection (a)(4), based 
     on--
       ``(A) the extent to which the community is a center of 
     illegal drug production, manufacturing, importation, 
     distribution, or use;
       ``(B) the extent to which State and local law enforcement 
     and prosecutorial authorities have committed resources to the 
     illegal

[[Page S6575]]

     drug problem in the community, thereby indicating a need for 
     additional Federal resources to combat issues related to the 
     prevalence of illegal drugs;
       ``(C) the extent to which illegal drug-related activities 
     in the community have an adverse impact on other communities 
     in the Nation; and
       ``(D) the extent to which additional Federal resources 
     would assist, eliminate, or reduce illegal drug-related 
     activities in the community.
       ``(2) Use of certain data.--In carrying out paragraph (1), 
     the Attorney General shall utilize information from national 
     data sources (including the Uniform Crime Reports of the 
     Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Arrestee Drug Abuse 
     Monitoring (ADAM) program of the National Institute of 
     Justice), including data relating to--
       ``(A) the number of arrests for drug possession or drug 
     sale in the community;
       ``(B) the number of arrests for drug-related crime in the 
     community; and
       ``(C) the number of arrestees testing positive for illegal 
     drug use in the community.
       ``(d) Small Community Preference.--In awarding grants under 
     this section, the Attorney General may set aside 20 percent 
     of award grants to applicants located in eligible communities 
     with a population of less than 35,000.
       ``(e) Funding.--Notwithstanding any other provision of this 
     title, of the amount made available to carry out this part, a 
     total of $500,000,000 shall be used to carry out this section 
     for fiscal years 2001 through 2005.''.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. GRASSLEY:
  S. 2853. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow 
distributions to be made from certain pension plans before the 
participant is severed from employment; to the Committee on Finance.


                 phased retirement programs facilitated

 Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today I am introducing a bill to 
amend the Internal Revenue Code. My bill will facilitate phased 
retirement programs. In April I held a hearing in the Special Committee 
on Aging. The subject of the hearing was employment of older workers. 
Several experts told us what could be done to encourage older 
individuals to remain in the labor market. In today's tight labor 
markets, older workers are in great demand. Employers have numerous 
strategies to attract and retain them--one of those is phased 
retirement.
  At our hearing, several witnesses testified that statutory changes to 
permit phased retirement programs would be helpful. One of those 
witnesses was Ms. September Dau from the Iowa Lakes Rural Electric 
Cooperative in Estherville, Iowa. Ms. Dau noted that the average age of 
the workforce at her Rural Electric Cooperative is high. Skilled 
workers are hard to come by and Iowa Lakes has implemented a phased 
retirement program in order to retain older workers. But they would 
like the comfort of knowing that their program is sanctioned.
  Phased retirement allows a worker to wind down his or her career, by 
working part-time and retiring part-time. It helps many people maintain 
their income level rather than quitting work all at once. Financially, 
it can allow an individual to postpone the time when he or she has to 
draw down retirement savings. A study performed by Watson Wyatt 
Worldwide concluded that 16 percent of larger companies already offer 
phased retirement in some form and another 28 percent show a moderate 
to high level of interest in offering it in the next two years. But 
plan sponsors have worries about running afoul of the ``in-service 
distribution'' rules. Tax rules bar employees from receiving pension 
distributions before they reach a pension's normal retirement age, 
which is usually pegged to Social Security. That rule makes it 
difficult for those who wish to retire gradually and use reduced 
pension payments to augment reduced pay. It also helps circumvent the 
``do-it-yourself'' phased retirement that some workers are forced into 
where they retire one day from their long-term employer and go to work 
the next day for someone else. This bill is designed to overcome those 
problems. At the same time, this provision is completely voluntary and 
so will not burden plan sponsors.
  As I said, we heard from witnesses who supported phased retirement 
programs. I mentioned September Dau from the Iowa Lakes Rural Electric 
Cooperative. But another one was our friend and colleague, Congressman 
Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota. Congressman Pomeroy told the Committee 
that phased retirement programs should be allowed as a way of 
increasing the attractiveness of defined benefit pension plans. Phased 
retirement programs could also make defined benefit plans more 
adaptable to the human resource needs of plan sponsors. This is 
important to Congressman Pomeroy because he is introducing a phased 
retirement bill that is identical to mine.
  Defined benefit plans provide a stream of payments to retirees. They 
can go a long way to supplementing Social Security. But defined benefit 
plans are on the decline, especially among small businesses, whose 
employees are the least likely group to be covered by any form of 
retirement plan. We know that life expectancy is increasing. We also 
know that Americans are not saving enough to maintain their standard of 
living in retirement. By making defined benefit plans more attractive 
to employers and workers--such as by facilitating phased retirement--we 
are helping to improve the lives of everyday American people.
  I hope that this bill is one step in that direction.
  I ask unanimous consent that a copy of the bill be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 2853

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. CERTAIN PENSION DISTRIBUTIONS ALLOWED BEFORE 
                   SEVERANCE FROM EMPLOYMENT.

       (a) In General.--Section 401(a) of the Internal Revenue 
     Code of 1986 (relating to qualified pension, profit-sharing, 
     and stock bonus plans) is amended by inserting after 
     paragraph (34) the following new paragraph:
       ``(35) Distribution prior to severance from employment.--A 
     trust forming part of a defined benefit plan (or a defined 
     contribution plan which is subject to the funding standards 
     of section 412) shall not constitute a qualified trust under 
     this section if the plan provides a distribution to a 
     participant who has not been severed from employment and the 
     distribution is made before the earliest of the following 
     with respect to the participant:
       ``(A) Normal retirement age (as defined in section 
     411(a)(8)).
       ``(B) Attainment of age 59\1/2\.
       ``(C) The date the participant completes 30 years of 
     service.''
       (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section 
     shall apply to years beginning after December 31, 
     2000.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. LEAHY (for himself, Mr. Torricelli, and Mr. Kohl):
  S. 2857. A bill to amend title 11, United States Code, to exclude 
personally identifiable information from the assets of a debtor in 
bankruptcy; to the Committee on the Judiciary.


              privacy policy enforcement in bankruptcy act

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation, with my 
friend from New Jersey, Senator Torricelli, to protect the personal 
privacy of consumers whose information is held by firms filing for 
bankruptcy protection.
  The Privacy Policy Enforcement in Bankruptcy Act would prohibit the 
sale of personally identifiable information held by a failed business 
if the sale or disclosure of the personal information would violate the 
privacy policy of the debtor in effect when the personal information 
was collected. Personally identifiable information, under our 
legislation, includes name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, 
Social Security number, credit card number, date of birth and any other 
identifier that permits the physical or online contacting of a specific 
individual.
  This legislation is needed because the customer databases of failed 
Internet firms now can be sold during bankruptcy, even in violation of 
the firm's stated privacy policy. That is wrong.
  Toysmart.com, for example, an online toy store, recently filed for 
bankruptcy and its databases and customer lists were put up for sale as 
part of the liquidation of the firm's assets. This personal customer 
information was put on the auction block even though Toysmart.com 
promised otherwise on its web page.
  Toysmart.com's web site states that ``personal information 
voluntarily submitted by visitors to our site, such as name, address, 
billing information and shopping preferences, is never shared with a 
third party.'' Toysmart.com's privacy statement continues: ``When you 
register with toysmart.com, you can rest assured that your information 
will never be shared with a third party.''
  But on June 8, 2000, one day before filing for bankruptcy, 
Toysmart.com advertised in the Wall Street Journal

[[Page S6576]]

to sell its customer lists and databases. That was a clear violation of 
Toysmart.com's web site privacy policy. The Federal Trade Commission 
has filed suit against Toysmart.com for this violation and I commend 
the FTC for its action.
  Yesterday, the Walt Disney Company, the parent company of 
Toysmart.com, announced that it would try to purchase Toysmart.com's 
customer information from the bankruptcy court. I applaud Disney for 
taking this step. There is no guarantee, however, that Disney will be 
the top bidder for this information and other corporate parents may not 
be as responsible if one of their subsidiaries fails. Indeed, two other 
failed web businesses, Boo.com and Craftshop.com, have reportedly 
sought buyers for its personal customer data.
  That is why this Congress should pass the Privacy Policy Enforcement 
in Bankruptcy Act this year. Consumers deserve this privacy protection.
  Mr. President, it is wrong to use our nation's bankruptcy laws as an 
excuse to violate a customer's personal privacy. Customers have a right 
to expect an online firm to adhere to its privacy policies whether it 
is making a profit or has filed for bankruptcy.
  I commend Senator Torricelli for joining with me to introduce the 
Privacy Policy Enforcement in Bankruptcy Act. Our legislation will 
close this loophole in the Bankruptcy Code and ensure that online and 
offline firms keep their promises to protect the personal privacy of 
their customers.
  I urge my colleagues to support this basic privacy protection 
legislation.

                          ____________________