[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
[October 3, 1996]
[Pages 1745-1747]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1745]]


Remarks on Signing the Comprehensive Methamphetamine Control Act
of 1996
October 3, 1996

    Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Attorney 
General Reno; Secretary Rubin; Secretary Shalala; General McCaffrey; OMB 
Director Frank Raines; Under Secretary Kelly; our ATF Director, John 
Magaw; Bonnie Campbell; Bob Scully and the board members of NAPO; to the 
families who are here represented that were mentioned by the Attorney 
General who have paid such a great price to serve our country in law 
enforcement. To the Members of Congress who are here who supported this 
action in a completely bipartisan way, I thank you for being here: 
Senator Biden, Senator Graham, Senator Feinstein, Senator John Kerry, 
Senator Reid, Senator Specter, Senator Wellstone, Congressman Conyers, 
Congressman Fazio, Congressman Fox, Congressman Frost, Congressman 
Luther, Congressman Studds. I thank you all for your active support of 
these initiatives and for your presence here today.
    I would like to begin by saluting the brave men and women who are in 
law enforcement in the United States. Before this ceremony, I had the 
honor of meeting and presenting the annual Top Cop award to 25 law 
enforcement officials from around the country who have displayed 
heroism, devotion to duty, and service to their communities that is 
truly extraordinary. That service is also on display in every community 
every day. Our police are at the center of our strategy as a nation for 
fighting crime, and today I think every American should give them 
thanks. So I would like to ask all of you to recognize those who have 
been awarded the Top Cop award behind us. [Applause]
    I would also like to say again a special word of thanks to Richard 
Hagerman and Donna Whitson, to the O'Hara and Alu families, and to Karen 
Degan and her family for their remarkable work to prove that 
representative government can still represent, can still actually 
respond to the legitimate needs and concerns of the citizens of this 
country.
    This is a good day for America because we have seen a change in the 
attitudes of our people, the actions of communities, and the work in 
Washington on the problem of crime. Today, after years and years of 
talking about the crime problem, we can actually see that we can say 
with a clear heart and a clear mind and absolute conviction to the 
American people, ``There is something you can do about crime.'' We are 
getting results, and today we mark the passage of three more laws that 
further advance our anticrime strategy.
    Four years ago, we put in place an anticrime strategy that was both 
tough and smart. It was eventually embodied in the 1994 crime bill. It 
has been behind all of our actions over the last 3\1/2\ years. We are on 
track to putting 100,000 new community police officers on the street, 
people who work with their neighbors to catch criminals, close crack 
houses, who work with citizens groups, which we have also supported, to 
prevent crime before it happens.
    I am pleased that the budget bill I signed on Monday evening will 
keep moving forward on our promise to finish putting 100,000 police on 
the street. We have toughened penalties, made ``three strikes and you're 
out'' the law of the land, expanded the death penalty, said to drug 
dealers who prey on public housing, ``One criminal conviction and you 
are out of public housing.'' We have said to sexual predators, ``The law 
will follow you wherever you go,'' and we are working to establish a 
national registry for sexual predators to make absolutely sure that that 
is exactly what happens. We are taking guns off the street, banning 19 
deadly assault weapons, passing the Brady bill.
    And we are giving our young people some things to say yes to as 
well: expanded antidrug programs in our schools, encouragement to 
communities to enforce truancy laws, impose community curfews, introduce 
policies like school uniforms. All of these things will work to give our 
children a stronger sense of right and wrong and a greater capacity to 
do what is right.
    This strategy, of course, is not ours alone. In fact, I would say to 
all those here--especially to you, Senator Biden, who helped us write 
the crime bill of 1994--what we have done in Washington is a reflection 
of what we have heard from the energy, the determination, and the 
activities of thousands and thousands of citizens

[[Page 1746]]

and law enforcement officials all across this country where our police 
are taking back their streets, enlisting the active support of community 
watch groups, of parents, of businesses.
    For 4 years in a row now, crime has come down in America. Murders 
are down; rapes are down; robberies are down; drug use is down. The 
rising tide of juvenile violence, which seemed poised to upend our 
progress, has finally begun to recede. There are one million fewer crime 
victims today than there were a year ago. Now we must press on. We must 
build on this strategy of putting more police on the street and taking 
criminals, drugs, and guns off the street. That is what these measures 
we mark today do.
    First, earlier this week, Congress answered my call to expand on the 
proven success of the Brady bill. When our police officers and crime 
victims were advocating the passage of the Brady bill and the assault 
weapons ban, those who opposed them told the Nation's hunters that 
Congress would take their guns away. Well, now we know. After 2 years, 
not a single hunter has been denied a weapon, but 60,000 felons, 
fugitives, and stalkers have been denied guns because of the Brady bill. 
It was plainly the right thing to do. It has worked.
    Until now, the Brady bill has worked to bar felons from buying guns, 
handguns. Thousands of people, however, who are wifebeaters or child 
abusers, even those who have wielded weapons in their assaults, could 
still buy handguns with potentially deadly consequences. There is no 
more harmful type of violence than this.
    In August, I asked Congress to pass an extension of the Brady bill 
to deny handguns to anyone convicted of domestic violence. I am pleased 
that the Congress enacted this important domestic violence law as part 
of the budget bill. It is a very fitting way to begin Domestic Violence 
Awareness Month, which I am proclaiming today. Now, with a strong voice, 
America says: If you are convicted of a felony you should not have a 
gun. If you are a fugitive from the law, you should not have a gun. If 
you are stalking or harassing women or children, you should not have a 
gun. And if you raise--and commit an act of violence against your spouse 
or your child, you should not have a gun. That is now the law of the 
land.
    Second, I am very pleased that in the budget bill Congress passed, 
more was done to help break the cycle of crime and drugs. Drug dealers 
with guns and criminals on drugs are central to our crime problem. Up to 
two-thirds of the adults arrested for felonies today have substance 
abuse problems. When criminals go on parole and then they go back on 
drugs, chances are very high that they will commit new crimes. Now, 
listen to this--I couldn't believe it when I learned this--60 percent--
60 percent--of the heroin and cocaine sold in our country is purchased 
by people on bail, on probation, or on parole. Seventy-five percent of 
the prisoners with a history of heroin or cocaine use are released 
without treatment, to go back on drugs within 3 months and back to the 
cycle of crime and drugs.
    Today, States often do not do much to drug test prisoners or 
parolees or take action to break them of their habit. Last month, I 
proposed legislation to do something about that. It requires States 
receiving Federal prison funds to develop comprehensive drug testing and 
treatment programs for prisoners and parolees. And I am very, very 
pleased that the Congress passed this legislation. We say to inmates, if 
you stay on drugs, you have to stay in jail. We say to parolees, if you 
go back on drugs, then you have to go back to jail. If you want to stay 
on the street, stay off drugs.
    I have asked the Attorney General to issue preliminary guidelines 
for the States to help them comply with this new law by the end of this 
year. I am pleased we are not wasting any time.
    And again let me thank the Congress for their prompt action on this 
problem. This has the potential to make a huge difference in the crime 
problem in America, as well as to liberate a lot of people from a drug 
abuse habit and enable them to go back to being responsible citizens 
instead of just being in a revolving door, in and out of prison all 
their lives.
    Finally, I'm pleased that Congress has passed important antidrug 
legislation that I submitted last spring to deal with methamphetamine. 
Methamphetamine is a deadly drug that unfortunately is gaining 
popularity. In 2 years, deaths from this drug have doubled. Currently 
isolated in geographic pockets, its use now threatens to spread 
nationwide.
    With this legislation we increase penalties for trafficking in meth, 
toughen the penalties for trafficking in those chemicals used to produce 
meth, and give the Justice Department authority to regulate and seize 
those chemicals. I am par-


[[Page 1747]]

ticularly pleased that we are acting before this epidemic spreads. And I 
thank General McCaffrey and Attorney General Reno for their urgency in 
this matter. We have to stop meth before it becomes the crack of the 
1990's, and this legislation gives us a chance to do it.
    Again, let me say to General McCaffrey a thank-you for your work and 
for holding two national forums on methamphetamine, one with Senator 
Feinstein in southern California and one with Senator Kerrey in 
Nebraska, over the next few months.
    All of these new laws will help us fight crime, but we must 
recognize that more police and tougher penalties cannot fight crime 
alone. Parents have to teach their children to stay away from drugs and 
out of gangs and violence. Clergy, business people, educators, all must 
do their part. We need more citizens out there patrolling the streets, 
and we are trying to generate another million volunteers to help because 
we know that these citizen patrols have dramatically reduced crime when 
they are working with police officers. And all of our young people must 
decide to assume more personal responsibility to stay off drugs, out of 
gangs, and away from jail and within the law.
    As of today, if you commit an act of violence against your spouse or 
child, you can't purchase a gun. If you violate your parole and use 
drugs, you must go back to jail. If you traffic in meth, you must pay a 
stiff penalty. We are safer because of these actions.
    Again, I thank the Congress. And I'm pleased to sign the 
legislation, and I'd like to ask the Members who are here and the law 
enforcement officers to come up and be with me.

Note: The President spoke at 9:23 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Bonnie Campbell, Director, Office 
of Violence Against Women, Department of Justice; Robert T. Scully, 
executive director, National Association of Police Organizations; and 
anticrime legislation advocates Richard Hagerman, Donna Whitson, Joseph 
Alu, Jr., Jim O'Hara, and Karen Degan. S. 1965, approved October 3, was 
assigned Public Law No. 104-237. Earlier in the day, the President 
signed the following additional anticrime legislation: the Child Abuse 
Prevention and Treatment Act Amendments of 1996 (S. 919, Public Law No. 
104-235); the Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification 
Act of 1996 (S. 1675, Public Law No. 104-236); and the Federal Law 
Enforcement Dependents Assistance Act of 1996 (S. 2101, Public Law No. 
104-238). The National Domestic Violence Awareness Month proclamation is 
listed in Appendix D at the end of this volume.