    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [December 18, 1995]
    [Pages 1902-1904]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1902]]

    Remarks on Signing the Memorandum on Federal Arrestee Drug Testing and
    an Exchange With Reporters
    December 18, 1995

        The President. I want to welcome the Attorney General; United States
    Attorneys Eric Holder of Washington, DC, and Kathryn Landreth of Nevada;
    the Attorney General of Minnesota, Skip Humphrey; District Attorney
    Lynne Abraham of Philadelphia; District Attorney Michael Barnes of South
    Bend, Indiana, who is president of the National District Attorneys
    Association; and Jeremy Travis of the National Institute of Justice. I
    thank all of them for joining me here today.
        I am about to sign a directive to the Attorney General instructing
    her to take the next step in our administration's all-out effort to
    break the cycle of crime and drugs.
        The criminal justice systems of our country are overburdened with
    drug-abusing defendants who cycle through the system while continuing to
    use drugs. Far too many criminals brought into our system have a
    substance abuse problem. In fact, a 1993 study by the Justice Department
    found that more than half of the arrestees tested positive for an
    illicit substance. Unless we break the cycle of drugs and crime,
    criminal addicts will end up back on the street committing more crimes
    and then right back in the criminal justice system still hooked on
    drugs. That's not fair to the taxpayers, the crime victims, or the
    American public. The cycle must be broken.
        All across our country employers have accepted responsibility to
    reduce the level of drug use in the workplace. Teachers and coaches have
    accepted the responsibility to reduce the level of drug use in our
    schools. Now it is time for agencies in our criminal justice system to
    use all their power to reduce drug use by Federal arrestees.
        With this directive, when you enter the Federal criminal justice
    system, you will be tested. If you have been taking drugs, you should
    suffer the consequences. The administration is committed to breaking
    this link between crime and drugs. Indeed, if we could break it, we
    could dramatically lower the crime rate.
        As a nation, there is only one message we can send: Continued drug
    use is unacceptable. We can't have a comprehensive crime-fighting effort
    until we end drug offenders' habits. That's why it's critical that the
    criminal justice system put all its power behind cleaning up drug-
    abusing criminals.
        This directive is another example in which the Federal criminal
    justice system can serve as a model for States. I'm very honored to be
    joined by the Minnesota Attorney General, Mr. Humphrey, and the district
    attorneys of Philadelphia and South Bend, Indiana. When they leave here
    today they're going home to ask their State legislatures to follow our
    lead in making sure all offenders are drug tested. I call upon every
    Governor, every State assembly, every State attorney general to do the
    same.
        I'm proud of our antidrug strategy. It combines tough enforcement
    with a real, comprehensive prevention program and more investment in
    treatment. This directive is another step in our efforts to eliminate
    illegal drug use.
        We know that reducing drug use will require everyone's effort.
    That's why today, our drug director, Dr. Lee Brown, is in California
    urging high school coaches to adopt drug testing of their athletes in
    order to reduce drug use among our teenagers.
        These two actions send a clear and unambiguous message: Drug use and
    drug abuse are both wrong and illegal. We can't tolerate a revolving
    door of criminal drug abusers in our system. And if we work together, we
    can ensure that all the offenders in our country become drug-free and
    stay drug-free if they're going to stay out of jail.
        Just yesterday, the FBI reported that for the first 6 months of this
    year, violent crime was down by 5 percent and the murder rate was down
    by 12 percent. Over the last 3 years, we've made ``three strikes and
    you're out'' the law of the land, passed the Brady bill, the assault
    weapons ban. We're well on our way to putting those 100,000 new police
    officers on the American streets. But there is still one very disturbing
    and unacceptable finding in the FBI report, the trend of violence being
    committed by juveniles.
        Later this week, I will be sending the Enhanced Prosecution of
    Dangerous Juvenile Offenders Act to the Congress. This legislation will
    help to address the critical problem of youth

    [[Page 1903]]

    criminals by strengthening Federal laws designed to deal with genuinely
    violent use. It's an additional tool for prosecutors to deal with
    violent juvenile criminals by holding dangerous youth criminals
    accountable for their actions. Once they've been arrested, we must stop
    them from repeating their crimes.
        With these steps that we've announced today, Federal arrestees who
    are abusing drugs will no longer be out on the streets, and hardened
    criminals will be dealt with accordingly, even if they're juveniles.

    [At this point, the President signed the memorandum.]

    Drug Policy

        Q. Do you think that's constitutional?
        The President. The way it is drawn, I do. The Attorney General might
    want to explain it, but basically, in the places where this has been
    tried the people who are arrested are asked to undergo drug testing. As
    I understand it, about 80 percent of them agree. If they don't agree,
    instead of being forced it's just reported to the judge in making a
    determination about how high to set bail and what the conditions of bail
    should be.
        Q. Well, if they are found to have taken drugs, does this mean
    they're not eligible for bail?
        The President. Well, it means it can change the circumstances under
    which they're tried and what they might have to do as a condition.
        Do you want to discuss that?
        Attorney General Reno. What it is saying--it is clearly
    constitutional to condition bail on testing. And what this says is, if
    you are going to get bail, you may have to agree to testing, you may
    have to agree to continued testing, to supervision, to certain conduct
    while you're on bail. Or it may mean that you have got to remain in the
    jail because the conditions would not ensure that you would be drug-free
    once you were on the streets.
        Q. Wouldn't you be subject to additional charges, though? You know,
    in other words, you're arrested on some totally unrelated charge and
    you're found to have had drugs.
        Attorney General Reno. What we're trying to do is to prevent the
    unrelated charge that happens once they've left the courthouse. And if
    they are using drugs and if drugs are what is fueling so much of crime
    in this country, to send them back out without doing something to
    interrupt that cycle and to let a crime happen that was drug induced
    doesn't make any sense.
        What the President is doing here is saying, look, we're going to try
    to do everything we can to ensure the safety of our streets based on
    these offenders and their condition, and we're also going to try to do
    something to make sure that we interrupt the cycle of drug use on the
    part of these offenders.

    Budget Impasse

        Q. Mr. President, what do you hear from the Speaker and Senator Dole
    on the budget and opening the Government again?
        The President. Well, I had talks with both of them this afternoon,
    and I offered--first, I asked them to open the Government again, and to
    do it immediately, so that the people who have made plans for Christmas
    week to be here and elsewhere would not be disappointed and so that the
    Federal employees would not be basically disoriented during this
    Christmas week. And I offered some ideas about how we might reopen the
    Government and how we might resume our budget negotiations. And they
    agreed to take my ideas under advisement and to speak with each other,
    perhaps with others as well.
        So I don't think I should talk about specifically what I said to
    them until I hear back from them. I think that would be wrong. I owe it
    to them to have a chance to consider this in a confidential matter on
    their own time.
        Q. Did you invite them to come over here to sit down with you and
    try to resolve this?
        The President. I talked about how we could get together and my
    personal willingness to be involved. But I'd rather not talk about the
    specifics of it until I hear back from them.
        Q. Do you think they'll respond tonight?
        The President. I just don't know. I hope so. I want the Congress to
    open the Government again. This is not--this whole action is without
    precedent. I think we should stop it, and we should go back to the
    ordinary way of dealing with this.
        I have demonstrated, I think, repeatedly, that I am committed to
    balancing the budget. I have shown that I will put forward a plan in 7
    years. I have told them that I will work with them. And I will work with
    them, and I believe we can do it. But we ought to re-open the
    Government, the Congress should, for the benefit of the American people,
    especially this week. We

    [[Page 1904]]

    shouldn't--this week the people and the employees should not be subject
    to this Government closing.
        Q. Are you willing to have them over here as early as tonight, Mr.
    President?
        The President. Well, I'd like to give them the chance to get back to
    me. I think it's important that I not talk anymore about the contents of
    my conversation until they have a chance to consider it and get back to
    me.
        Q. Are you more encouraged, though, by what you heard in this phone
    call that the Government can get back to working 100 percent?
        The President. I hope so. That's all I can say. I hope so.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:35 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House.