    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [August 21, 1994]
    [Pages 1487-1489]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Anticrime Legislation and an Exchange With Reporters
    August 21, 1994

        The President. The vote in the House of Representatives tonight is a
    great victory for all law-abiding Americans. It's also a victory for all
    Americans who have longed to change the way Government works here in our
    Nation's Capital, who have wanted us for a long time to go beyond labels
    and partisan divisions and false choices to commonsense solutions to our
    most profound national challenges.
        For 6 long years, under two previous Presidents, our families were
    under siege; violence on our streets increased. Washington talked a lot
    about crime during these years but did not act.
        Well, tonight Democrats and Republicans joined together, and they
    acted. They reached across party lines to pass the toughest and smartest
    crime bill in the history of the United

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    States. The House moved beyond politics as usual to assume
    responsibility for protecting our citizens and for punishing those who
    prey on them and for giving our children a better future.
        I am very grateful for the cooperation in this effort of several
    Members of the House in the Republican Party who worked hard with the
    Democrats in the House and with our administration to make improvements
    in this bill over the last few days. This is the way Washington ought to
    work, and I hope it will work this way in the future.
        Let me remind you: This crime bill will put 100,000 police officers
    on our streets. It will keep repeat violent criminals off our streets
    with longer sentences and with the ``three strikes and you're out'' law
    and with funds to build prisons to hold those criminals. It will
    prohibit juveniles from owning handguns and ban deadly assault weapons
    and provide prevention funds to our local communities to give our
    children something to say yes to and to give people the opportunity to
    teach our children who need it right from wrong.
        And the entire crime bill was fully paid for--and I want to
    emphasize this again--this major attack on crime is fully paid for not
    with new taxes, not by taking money away from current expenditures but
    by reducing the Federal Government to its lowest level in 30 years, by
    over 270,000, a major focus of our reinventing Government efforts. And
    all that money will be taken from the Federal budget and given to local
    communities to empower them to keep the American people safer.
        Still, in spite of the great strengths of this bill, many of the
    same forces that prevented a crime bill from passing for 6 years were
    also present here, especially over the assault weapons issue. We
    received great pressure after the crime bill stalled in the House to
    simply remove the assault weapons ban. But we held firm, though the
    opposition was intense and the outcome was uncertain. We held firm
    because we owed it to the brave men and women in police uniforms who go
    out and risk their lives for the rest of us every day, and we owed it to
    the law-abiding citizens of this country. We must never walk away from
    our fundamental responsibilities in this area.
        Let me remind you now that this fight is far from over. We now move
    to the Senate, which must pass the bill this week. But I hope that the
    Senators watched this debate, and I hope they watched the events of the
    last few days. And I hope they watched the Republicans and the Democrats
    working together for the safety of the people of the United States.
    After all, as I said the other day, this must not be a Democratic crime
    bill or a Republican crime bill; this crime bill must belong to the
    American people. And I urge the Senate to pass it without delay.
        Q. Mr. President, as you know, there are many opponents in the
    Senate who are already threatening a filibuster. Do you believe there
    are 60 Senators who will vote in favor of this package?
        The President. Well, I would remind you that there were over 90
    Senators who voted for a crime bill that was about this expensive, cost
    about this amount of money. I have given them a way to pay for it
    without new taxes and without taking away from other Government
    expenditures. The crime bill the Senate passed the first time had the
    assault weapons ban in it. It had prevention funds in it. It had tougher
    punishment in it. So, since this bill is essentially what they passed
    before--because the Senate also passed 100,000 police officers--those
    who change their vote will have to explain it and will bear the burden
    of doing so.
        We've seen enough politics on this crime bill. The time has come to
    pass it. And yes, I believe that when the time comes there will be 60
    votes to pass a crime bill.
        Q. Mr. President, you said you hope this vote changes the way
    Washington works. Will you change the way you work and tone down your
    partisan rhetoric and reach more quickly out to the Republicans?
        The President. Well, Mr. Fournier [Ron Fournier, Associated Press],
    I disagree with you. I have always sought first on every major bill to
    reach out to the Republicans. And the minute it became obvious that we
    had a chance to do so here, I did it.
        I do want to say that that group which worked so closely with the
    administration and with some of the Democrats who were working on this
    bill proceeded in good faith. I appreciate what they did. I know they,
    too, were under partisan pressure on their side not to do it.
        But as long as we can have a working bipartisan majority to get
    something good done for America, I'm going to be there leading the
    charge. And I'm hopeful that this represents a change in attitudes
    across the board. It's what

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    I had hoped to bring to Washington when I came here. And I think it's
    what the American people want us to do.

    Health Care Reform

        Q. What lessons have you learned from this exchange on the crime
    bill that you think might be useful in going forward with health care
    reform?
        The President. That's hard to say----
        Q. Specifically on the matter of the mainstream version now in the
    Senate, is that something you would support?
        The President. The issue--but the issue in every case is, are the
    people involved willing to look at what actually will work?
        What happened to us here in this crime bill in the last couple of
    days is that we even had people meeting with us who voted against the
    assault weapons ban. We had people meeting with us who thought that the
    bill was too costly but that there did need to be some money put into
    prevention to give these kids a better future. And the discussion was
    unfailingly about what was reasonable, what was practical, and what
    would work. What gets Washington all jammed up is when ideology and
    labels overtake what is the clear reality of a circumstance.
        And I think that that would be possible in the health care debate.
    But everybody would have to be willing to sort of leave their
    preconceived positions at the door, at least be prepared to moderate
    them some in order to achieve the goal that we all say we want.
    Everybody says we want two things, to keep the health care system we
    have but (a) achieve coverage for all Americans and (b) do it in ways
    that control costs in the years to come. The issue is, will we really
    look at that? And I hope we will. I am very hopeful.
        All I can tell you is, I'm going to bend over backwards, even though
    I am not a Member of the Congress; I do not control the procedures in
    the Congress. I think the fact that this procedure worked well should
    auger well for the future. And I hope people in both parties will at
    least seek this opportunity on major pieces of legislation.
        Thank you.
        Q. Sounds like you support the mainstream proposal in the Senate.
        The President. That's not what I said. I don't know what it is. I
    haven't had a chance to study it.

    President's Vacation

        Q. Will you get your birthday wish and go on vacation?
        The President. I hope so. I don't know yet. I missed my other one by
    one stroke yesterday. [Laughter]

    Note: The President spoke at 8:16 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House.