[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

[[Page 1488]]

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

[[Page 1489]]

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.