Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 29, 1994 TAG: 9407290081
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The get-tough plan, which would spend about $33 billion over six years, also would ban many assault-style weapons and would make about 60 federal crimes punishable by the death penalty.
In a bow to liberal pressure, the plan also would spend billions for social programs such as job training and urban recreation such as midnight basketball to lure tough city kids away from crime.
The House and the Senate are expected to vote on the compromise crime bill as early as next week.
President Clinton said during a meeting with law enforcement officials, ``We are on the verge of a major victory for our country.'' He praised the ``toughest, largest and smartest federal attack on crime in the history of the United States of America.''
Recent attempts to complete a national crime bill were thwarted by legislative gridlock.
``These debates have divided us for too long while children died,'' said Clinton.
There were legislative roadblocks until the final hours of debate, and may be more before the plan can get to Clinton's desk for his promised signature.
Only in recent days did negotiators agree to drop a bitterly controversial proposal called the Racial Justice Act. Pushed by the Congressional Black Caucus and included in the House crime bill, it would have allowed convicts to escape the death penalty if they could produce statistics showing racial bias in similar cases.
Backers insisted it was necessary to correct a system skewed against minority convicts. Opponents argued that it put the burden on prosecutors to prove the absence of bias and would, in effect, make it impossible to carry out executions. Senate Republicans promised to filibuster the final bill if it included the measure, and Clinton remained noticeably cool to it.
Dropping the racial justice language might have averted a Republican filibuster, but it did not guarantee Republican support and could cost the votes of some members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Although the final plan weighs heavily toward traditional law-and-order remedies - spending more than $3 on police and prisons for every $1 spent on preventive social programs - Republicans lambasted spending money on prevention programs as being soft on crime. ``This is a wish list for frustrated socialists,'' complained Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, called it ``a big-spending boondoggle that isn't going to do what we want it to do.''
Clinton and other backers dismissed such criticisms. ``The prevention money is in this bill because the law enforcement officials of the United States said we cannot jail our way out of this crisis,'' Clinton said. ``We've got to give our kids something to say yes to and a future.''
Spending for social programs assured the support of at least one prominent member of the Black Caucus, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.
``For the very first time, draconian penalties share the stage equally with positive prevention programs,'' said Conyers.
Rep. Jack Brooks, D-Texas, the tough-talking, cigar-chomping chairman of the Judiciary Committee, agreed there was a need for some federal help to show kids an alternative to gangs and crime.
``It's going to put violent criminals in the clink, where they belong,'' Brooks said, adding, that ``it's going to have a lot of innovative operations in it that give us a chance to save people so we don't have to put them in jail.''
by CNB