[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 16214]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 16214]]

BIPARTISAN WORKING GROUP TO TAKE COMPREHENSIVE LOOK INTO YOUTH VIOLENCE

  (Mr. WAMP asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WAMP. Mr. Speaker, I am not a fan of these 1-minute speeches. 
Usually I do not do this. As we can all see, it devolves sometimes into 
a partisan food fight.
  I come today to praise a bipartisan approach to the number one 
domestic issue, in my opinion, and that is youth violence. At the 
initiative of the Speaker of the House, working with the gentleman from 
Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), the minority leader, they have appointed a 
bipartisan working group, 10 Republicans, 10 Democrats, co-chaired by 
the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Dunn) and the gentleman from Texas 
(Mr. Frost), and I am the vice chairman of this group.
  For the next 2 months we will look in a bipartisan way at a 
comprehensive approach to youth violence. Guns, school security, 
breakdown of the family, influence of the mass media, a comprehensive 
approach to do what we can in the Congress to address this critical 
issue in a bipartisan way.
  We need more approaches like this one where we can work together, 
because we are all serving the same people.

                          ____________________