Orrin Hatch

Mr. HATCH

Mr. HATCH. I have no problem with the Senator bringing up his amendment. Could we, on this first amendment----

Mr. HATCH. Senator Sessions has an amendment. Ten minutes equally divided on your side, so we can keep the time constraints here?

Mr. HATCH. For yourself? So 20 minutes equally divided?

Mr. HATCH. Can we agree to a unanimous consent time agreement of some limit so we know when we can get somebody over here to present his or her amendment? I understand the distinguished Senator has three amendments. We will be glad to come back to the distinguished Senator for his second one, and then we will go back over here again, and then come back again. But I would like to be able to have some ability to know when I should have people here so we do not waste floor time, because we are pressured. We have worked all weekend to get our amendments down from the thirties to seven. The Democrat amendments are in the forties. I would like you to do the same, to work them down to seven. But it does mean some cooperation on both sides. I do not want people over here going on with any length either. And I will try to make sure they cooperate with reasonable time constraints.

Mr. HATCH. Has the Senator sent his amendment to the desk?

Mr. HATCH. Is the Senator prepared to enter into a time agreement?

Mr. HATCH. Will the Senator be amenable to having a time agreement on this amendment, because up to now we have been working on very short time agreements and going back and forth. We have an amendment over here that will be offered and then we can come back to the Senator for his next amendment. If we can work pursuant to time agreements, it will be very helpful to the managers of the bill.

Mr. HATCH. Will the Senator yield for a question?

Mr. HATCH. If there is no one to argue on the other side, it would be a 10-minute amendment. Thus far, I do not know of anybody who is going to argue against it.

Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, the Senate today resumes consideration of the youth violence bill. As we resume debate on this measure let me quote from a recent New York Times editorial: In the past it was not hard to be struck by the way time seemed to roll over a tragedy like a school shooting, by the disparity between the enduring grief of parents who lost children in places like Paducah and Jonesboro and the swift distraction of the rest of us. This time, perhaps, things may be different. The Littleton shootings have forced upon the nation a feeling that many parents know all too well--that of inhabiting the very culture they are trying to protect their children from. * * * The urge to do something about youth violence is very strong * * * but it will require an urge to do many things, and to do them with considerable ingenuity and dedication, before symptomatic violence of the kind that occurred at Littleton begins to seem truly improbable, not just as unlikely as the last shooting. While I may not agree with the New York Times on everything, I doubt that I could have described our task any better. I commend them for this editorial. This issue is a complex problem which requires dedication, a spirit of cooperation, and an agreed-upon set of objectives. When I assumed chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee, one of my first actions was the creation of the Youth Violence Subcommittee. The subcommittee made dealing with the problem of youth violence a priority, and our efforts on this front were paid greater attention in the wake of juvenile crime tragedies. Yet, as the editorial in the New York Times notes, the Nation's attention always seemed to be swiftly distracted. Still, we pushed forward with our legislative efforts. Senator Sessions held hearings in nearly empty hearing rooms. We spent more than 6 weeks in committee marking up the predecessor to the bill we have before us today. Some questioned our political equilibrium. After all, juvenile justice is fundamentally a State matter, and our economy is robust. Why bother? That is what some felt. Well, we have worked on this bill and pushed for this bill because we think it is the right thing to do and because it will improve juvenile justice and deter youth violence. Some of us have invested substantial time, effort and political capital in this bill. I have invested even more in this bill in these last few days by supporting measures which, at an earlier time, I may not have supported. I have put the goal of changing our culture of violence and helping our young people first. The question for us now, however, is: Do we have the political strength as an institution to come together and pass this bill promptly? I firmly believe the work we have undertaken these last several days demonstrates that we, on this side of the aisle, are dedicated to addressing the problems of youth violence and that we are willing to put our children first. We have made significant progress on this bill to date. We have voted on 14 amendments and I plan to accept even more in the managers' amendment. We have spent 4 legislative days on this measure. As a result, this is a better, more comprehensive bill than when we began the debate. If we focus our effort on where we can agree, as opposed to where we may differ, I believe we can pass this bill expeditiously. Mr. President, the problem of school violence and juvenile crime is not going to go away because we have debated the issue and voted on some divisive amendments. In fact, the problem continued this weekend in Michigan where four juveniles, ages 12 through 14, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder for plotting a school shooting similar to the massacre at Columbine High School. These four juveniles allegedly planned to kill their classmates by opening fire in the middle school assembly and then detonating a bomb on school grounds. Michigan prosecutors reported that the juveniles planned to kill more students than were killed at Columbine High School. A bomb that was discovered near the middle school campus on Thursday led school officials to conduct school-by-school inspections and cancel school activities. Senator Feinstein and I have filed our antibomb amendment. It is astounding to me--the hundreds of articles on the Internet that teach kids how to do violence and make bombs. In addition, a 13-year-old boy was arrested in Indiana this weekend for planting seven pipe bombs in a car owned by one of his classmate's parents. One of the bombs exploded while the car was being driven. Reportedly, the juvenile stalked the family after their daughter told authorities that the boy had brought a gun to school. Moreover, just days after the tragedy in Littleton, four junior high students in Wimberley, TX, were charged with plotting to kill students and teachers in a planned attack eerily similar to the one committed at Columbine High School. Gun powder, explosive devices, and bomb-making instructions downloaded from the Internet were found at the juveniles' homes. Incredibly, this was not a copycat plan. Rather, these 14-year- old boys had been planning the attack since the beginning of the year. Mr. President, today, we believe and pray that the Columbine High School rampage will never be forgotten. Let's make sure that is the case. Let's pass this bill. Remember, we said the same about similar shootings in recent years in schools in Pearl, MS, which left two dead; West Paducah, KY, which left three dead; Jonesboro, AK, which left five dead; Edinboro, PA, which left one dead; and Springfield, OR, which left two dead. These disturbing trends, which have occurred in every region of the country, provide further evidence that we should pass this legislation. No longer can we reasonably say that youth violence is a random or inconsequential problem. In reality, this legislation is needed now more than ever because juvenile crime and youth violence is unacceptably high by historical standards. Given the magnitude of this problem--and the number of warning signs that future tragedies may be imminent--we cannot afford to delay passage of this bill through amendment. Instead, we should come together and reach unanimous consent to pass this bill tomorrow. For the sake of our children, let's wrap this bill up. This is a bipartisan bill. We have been open for suggestions from the administration and from the Justice Department. We haven't had any until this last week. But most of those suggestions we have embodied in the bill or will embody in the bill. So let's pass this bill tomorrow. Let's get this bill enacted into law. Let's get the President to sign it, and let's do everything we can to prevent future tragedies like the one at Columbine High. Elaine and I just had our 18th grandchild born a few days ago--a little girl named Madison Alysa. We are very concerned. We have 6 children and 18 grandchildren now. The 19th is on its way, and will be here sometime in August. I have to say that I want to leave this world a better place for them than it currently is. This bill is one magnificent attempt to get us there. Nothing we do is going to absolutely guarantee no future problems. But this bill will absolutely guarantee that there will be less of those future problems than we have today, and it may even, in the end, help us to guarantee that there are none of these types of problems again, although I fully confess that I am probably wishing for too much under today's circumstances, with the influences that are besetting our kids throughout our society today. Our problems are primarily cultural today. They are cultural. There is no question that we need to have accountability where kids learn to be responsible for their actions, and learn that there is a price to be paid for actions that are denigrating to society. But we also need the prevention moneys in this bill that basically will help kids to realize that if they have made a mistake, we are going to help them to get back, we are going to help them to be able to resolve their problems in life. We need the safe schools section of this bill. We need the section that will help to change our culture by giving the entertainment industry the tools by which they can voluntarily require compliance with their retailers and their wholesalers so these adult and mature materials are not sold and disseminated to children. We have a study in this bill by the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission, to study just whether or not some of these industries are actually targeting kids. Of course, we have other provisions as well. We have the antitrust exemption, which would allow the companies to get together to voluntarily stop some of the things that are going on. Last, but not least--I can talk about this all day--we need to get tough on violent juveniles. Some of these kids are every bit as bad as the Mafia. They kill at the drop of a hat. They don't have any conscience. They laugh at those who are righteous and decent and morally upright. And, frankly, we have to make sure that when they commit these heinous crimes, that they pay a price for it. Hopefully, we can rehabilitate them with the prevention moneys. But if we can't, they ought to be removed from society so they can't kill other people or maim other people or cause the problems that they are currently causing. All of these things we can do with this bill. This is a bipartisan bill. We have good people on both sides of the aisle supporting it. I believe we need to get it done. I appreciate the efforts of those who are here today willing to present their amendments so we can get this matter finished, and so we know, hopefully by the end of this day, just how many amendments we have and what we need to do. I yield the floor.

Mr. HATCH. That is the purpose here. If I could bring to the Senator's attention, that is why we are listening to him, because we believe he is going to offer his amendments today. And we are certainly going to look at them. I also tell the Senator, I am a strong supporter of mental health programs.

Mr. HATCH. We will have a major debate on mental health on the SAMHSA bill this year, and I am going to try to help him and others who feel deeply about it. Certainly mental health concerns are a part of this bill, because we provide, in one block grant, that mental health concerns can be part of that block grant. So we have not failed to consider that. But we left it up to the States to make those determinations rather than dictate to them or tell them what they have to do. Now, I guess what I am saying----

Mr. HATCH. Will the Senator yield?

Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I know that the Senator from Minnesota has a commitment to ensuring that individuals who suffer from mental illness have the resources and support they need to combat this painful condition. I have heard from groups who assert that the amendment would help improve school safety. The sad truth is there is no evidence whatsoever to support the assertion that the recent tragedies in Littleton, CO, and in Oregon, would have been prevented by having more school counselors. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, according to reports, had both gotten individual counseling had undergone anger-management training and had gotten affirmative evaluations from counselors. It has been reported that the 15-year-old Oregon shooter, Kip Kinkle was in counseling, along with his parents, when he killed them and went on to kill two classmates. It has also been reported that an English teacher of one of the Columbine killers had expressed concern about Dylan Klebold's writing to his parents and a counselor. I mention this not in an attempt to disparage the fine work done by our Nation's counselors, but to make the point that effective policies to identify and prevent acts of violence must be school and community wide in nature. I read with interest a recent article in the Washington Post on April 25, written by a Virginia teacher, Mr. Patrick Welsh, which described the program already in place at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, VA. President Clinton recently visited this school. I would like to read to you from Mr. Welsh's article, which describes the efforts made by teachers and administrators and law enforcement personnel at this school. We make no pretense: The possibility of violence is a fact of life here. There is usually a police car--and sometimes two or three--in front of the building. A decade ago, that would have worried parents. Now they appreciate it. The police almost seem like part of the school staff. All of us-- administrators, faculty, students and police--are encouraged to see maintaining security as our joint responsibility. . . . If at night there is a brawl in the community that might spill over into school the next day, the police inform administrators and often show up at school early in the morning. Conversely, administrators let police know about trouble at school that could spill over into the community. But it's not just liaison with the police that administrators value; it's liaison with the kids. Our principal, John Porter, and one of his assistants are out in front of the school nearly every morning greeting students and looking for signs for trouble. Mr. President, T.C. Williams should be commended for its initiative. This school, and others around the country, has developed a program that works for them. I suggest to my colleagues that it is this type of individual school by school approach that my legislation and the Republican package of education amendments attempts to support. Violence prevention starts with trust. It's the availability of faculty. It's principals walking around the school. It's kids who trust the administration to respect their confidentiality. It's kids who feel a part of their community and will work to keep it safe. Mr. President, I believe we can support our teachers, counselors, and administrators best by providing them with the resources needed to adequately fund current education programs and the flexibility to implement an appropriate school violence prevention program that works. I do not believe this would be the result of the amendment of the Senator from Minnesota. Therefore, I must oppose the Wellston amendment.

Mr. HATCH. What I am trying to do is get an amendment done in just a few minutes, turn to you, and then I hope you will be reasonably short. I know the majority leader has indicated to me he is getting pretty tired of this and he wants to get back to Y2K.

Mr. HATCH. The Senator may put into the Record any additional comments that he cares to.

Mr. HATCH. I think the Senator's statements are going to be the only ones until prior to the votes.

Mr. HATCH. I thank the Chair. Amendment No. 356 (Purpose: To improve the juvenile delinquency prevention challenge grant program)

Mr. HATCH. Then I ask that my unanimous consent agreement be approved.

Mr. HATCH. Will the Senator give it some consideration, and we will talk about it?

Mr. HATCH. Could we determine a time limit on your next amendment? I do not know of anybody here who is going to speak in opposition at this point. They will probably wait until the 5 minutes before the amendments are called up for a vote. But could we have a time limit on your second amendment, as well? Then I will be able to tell the next Senator offering an amendment when to be here.

Mr. HATCH. Surely.

Mr. HATCH. Will the Senator yield to me?

Orrin Hatch

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