[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 20788]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                      JUVENILE JUSTICE CONFERENCE

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, so far, we have had one meeting of a 
conference to resolve differences in the Senate and House passed 
juvenile justice bills. I commented at that conference meeting, on 
August 5, 1999, about how unfortunate it was that the leadership in the 
Congress delayed action on the conference all summer. In fact, the 
conference met less than 24 hours before the Congress adjourned for its 
long August recess.
  Unfortunately, we did not conclude our work but left this conference 
and important work on the juvenile justice legislation to languish for 
the last five weeks of the summer.
  Due to the delays in convening this conference and then its abrupt 
adjournment before completing its work, we knew before our August 
recess that the programs to enhance school safety and protect our 
children and families called for in this legislation would not be in 
place before school began.
  The fact that American children are starting school without Congress 
finishing its work on this legislation is wrong.
  We had to overcome technical obstacles and threatened filibusters to 
begin the juvenile justice conference. It is no secret that there are 
those in both bodies who would prefer no action and no conference to 
moving forward on the issues of juvenile violence and crime. Now that 
we have convened this conference, we should waste no more time to get 
down to business and finish our work promptly.
  We have seen the kind of swift conference action the Congress is 
capable of doing with the Y2K law that provides special legal 
protections to businesses. That Y2K bill was passed by the Senate 
almost a month after the Hatch-Leahy juvenile justice bill, on June 
16th, but was sent to conference, worked out, and sent to the 
President's desk within two short weeks. That bill is already law. The 
example set by the Y2K legislation shows that if we have the will, 
there is a way to get legislation done and done quickly.
  Those of us serving on the conference and many who are not on the 
conference have worked on versions of this legislation for several 
years now. We spent two weeks on the Senate floor in May considering 
almost 50 amendments to S. 254, the Senate juvenile justice bill, and 
making many improvements to the underlying bill. We worked hard in the 
Senate for a strong bipartisan juvenile justice bill, and we should 
take this opportunity to cut through our remaining partisan differences 
to make a difference in the lives of our children and families.
  I appreciate that one of the most contentious issues in this 
conference is guns, even though sensible gun control proposals are just 
a small part of the comprehensive legislation we are considering. The 
question that the majority in Congress must answer is what are they 
willing to do to protect children from gun violence?
  A report released two months ago on juvenile violence by the Justice 
Department concludes that, ``data . . . indicate that guns play a major 
role in juvenile violence.'' We need to do more to keep guns out of the 
hands of children who do not know how to use them or plan to use them 
to hurt others.
  Law enforcement officers in this country need help in keeping guns 
out of the hands of people who should not have them. I am not talking 
about people who use guns for hunting or for sport, but about criminals 
and unsupervised children. An editorial that appeared today in the 
Rutland Daily Herald summed up the dilemma in this juvenile justice 
conference for the majority:

       Republicans in Congress have tried to follow the line of 
     the National Rifle Association. It will be interesting to see 
     if they can hold that line when the Nation's crime fighters 
     let them know that fighting crime also means fighting guns.

  Every parent, teacher and student in this country was concerned this 
summer about school violence over the last two years and worried about 
when the next shooting may occur. They only hope it does not happen at 
their school or involve their children. This an unacceptable and 
intolerable situation.
  We all recognize that there is no single cause and no single 
legislative solution that will cure the ill of youth violence in our 
schools or in our streets. But we have an opportunity before us to do 
our part. We should seize this opportunity to act on balanced, 
effective juvenile justice legislation, and measures to keep guns out 
of the hands of children and away from criminals. I hope we get to work 
soon and finish what we started in the juvenile justice conference. We 
are already tardy.

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