Henry Hyde

Mr. HYDE

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson] and the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Tejeda] be removed as cosponsors from the bill, H.R. 10.

Mr. HYDE

Mr. HYDE. With pleasure, I yield to the gentlewoman from Oregon.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Chairman, I am terribly sorry, but I just do not agree. I do not think they understand that their program is seed money and, after a few years, it evaporates, it disappears, and the local unit of government is left to absorb all of the coats. I do not think they are thinking in those terms, but it is a fact that it is virtually illusory. We are talking 20,000 policemen, fully paid for, not 100,000. Those figures have been worked out, and they are not too obscure. The fact is we have a program that is animated by the philosophy that local government knows its problems and how to deal with them. All wisdom does not reside in Washington. Now to call it super pork is really to insult thousands of local officials who must face the same taxpayers we face only in a more immediate fashion. They come out to the meetings and eyeball these people. There is going to be supervision over how its spent through the U.S. Attorney General's office having a program of oversight, and so it just seems to me a little trust, a little faith, a little humility, that we do not know it all, that the people in the front lines do know it all, and let us give them the resources. Now some say, no more policemen, that they do not need policemen. Maybe they want technical help; maybe computers are what they need; maybe prosecutors; maybe jails; maybe policemen. But let them make the call, not from here hundreds or thousands of miles away in Washington.

Mr. HYDE. I yield to the gentlewoman from Oregon.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Chairman, I mean no disrespect, but there is an incredible arrogance; I suppose it is an unconscious arrogance; in the position that Washington knows best. Yes, there is a police program in place. That is the problem. It is their program instead of local government's program. This bill that we are advancing provides for local advisory boards. Now the gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Richardson] said he has held 1,000 town meetings and he knows best. Well, I am not sure that I would have the, I do not know another word, arrogance, to say that I know more about every nook and cranny of my district and its needs for public safety and fighting crime than the local police, and the sheriff's office, the local prosecutor, representatives from the local court system, representatives from the local school board system, representatives from community groups. I mean, a little humility. These are the people fighting the problem in their front yard.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. (Mr. HYDE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words. Mr. Chairman, I would like to say to my friend, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Volkmer], I think he is making, in my judgment, a mistake. I think what he is doing is sequestering again abortion facilities and saying they are different from other places. Under our bill, if the local authorities see that the peace is going to be disturbed, there is a threat to the peace, no matter what the place is or what it does, they have a right to send police there to protect the public safety. If it is an abortion clinic or not, if it is a church, they have a right to protect the public safety. I believe that is their constitutional duty, and the gentleman knows how I feel about abortion clinics. But people have a right to exercise their constitutional right. Now I suggest to the gentleman that we do not need any more amendments. The Schiff amendment is in place, and it says the local authorities may send police or protective devices or whatever is required wherever they see a threat to public safety, and that ought to cover the abortion question, the bank question, the convenience store and the school. So, I wish the gentleman would not elevate out of the mainstream abortion clinics because they do not deserve it, and I think the gentleman is doing the same thing the gentlewoman did, only in a negative way.

Mr. HYDE. I yield to the gentleman from Missouri.

Mr. HYDE. Sure.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Chairman, would the gentleman let me reclaim my time? Whenever there is a threat to public safety, if it is in the lobby of a church, if it is around an abortion clinic, if it is in my home, I want law enforcement to be there to protect innocent people.

Mr. HYDE. I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.

Mr. HYDE. Yes, I am.

Mr. HYDE. Yes, sir. I hope there is no doubt in the gentleman's mind. Affirmative, yes.

Mr. HYDE. Of course I yield to my comrade in arms, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Volkmer].

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Chairman, we cannot protect people who violate the law, no matter what their motives are. I say, ``You may not do evil that good may result, and violence has to be stopped whether it's in front of abortion clinics or somewhere else.''

Mr. HYDE. That is the law, though. That is the law unfortunately. The gentleman and I voted against it, but it is the law, and the gentleman and I are sworn to uphold the law.

Mr. HYDE. Well, I am going to resist it. I am going to say it may be the law, but it is not good morality, and its lousy policy, but it is the law, and we are sworn to uphold the law. But let us fight to reverse it.

Mr. HYDE. I thank the gentleman for yielding this 30 seconds to me. I just want to respond to the gentleman who mentioned my name. I did not vilify anybody. If his attention span were not distracted today, he would find that I do not vilify anybody. I vilify the act of abortion, I vilify the fact that it occurs, bloodily occurs, against defenseless, unborn children, but I do not vilify people who engage in that--I pray for them.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HYDE. I thank the gentleman for yielding this time to me. Mr. Chairman, I could not agree more with my friend from New York. The greatest boon to men is abortion. Boy, does that take it off of their back, does that solve a big problem for them. I want to make it clear, I do not and I do not know anybody that condones the vicious murders that have occurred within the last 20 months, 5 of them; vicious, they ought to be prosecuted for murder to the fullest extent of the law. They have done incalculable harm to the pro-life movement. There is nothing pro-life about killing people, even if they are participating in abortion clinics. So let us get that clear. Let us also get clear the fact that the Schiff amendment covers this situation and more because it says enhancing security measures in and around schools and in and around any other facility or location which is considered by the unit of local government to have a special risk for incidents of crime. So this is not about the legal question, this is about the moral question of abortion. This is an abortion vote because the gentlewoman from Colorado wishes to elevate to a position of special status abortion clinics. We do not call them that. As a matter of fact, we call them health care clinics. That reminds me of an old Italian saying, though, that, ``You dress the shepherd in silk, he still smells of the goat.'' What we are talking about are places where unborn children are destroyed in their mothers' wombs. And a lot of people are very uncomfortable about that. Some people are driven to distraction for which the tragedy is compounded and for which I am sorry. And if protection is needed, they ought to have it. But I am unwilling to take abortion mills and give them a special status over other places where more people are killed more frequently. Now, I looked at the statistics for 1993, and they give you the statistics for 1992: 6 lawyers and judges were killed in that year, 7 teachers, elementary teachers, 86 cab drivers--86 cab drivers in this country. Also, 77 cashiers; fast-food employees, pizza delivery people--54. Should we have security cameras around convenience stores? Twelve farmers, eight entertainers, fifty-eight cops. Fifty-eight cops. Now, bank robbery, let us talk about a Federal nexus; there is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Interstate Commerce. There were 18 deaths in that year, the year of 1992. So if we are looking for where these deaths occurred, single out these places, there are lots of places to single out more dangerous, more vulnerable than abortion mills. Now, I do not understand why anybody would feel comfortable elevating abortion mills to a place of special status. But some people do. So that is exactly what this vote is. If you think abortion clinics deserve to be singled out and to be protected specially over banks, over cab drivers, over schools, over the police themselves, why, go ahead and vote for the gentlewoman's bill. But if you share with me an abhorrence, a condemnation of violence anywhere and everywhere, it is wrong, it is dead wrong and ought to be prosecuted. But if your sense of moral imagination encompasses the violence that goes on in abortion mills, euphemistically called health care clinics, not too healthy for the unborn, I might say; safe, legal, and rare. It is not safe for the unborn; it is terminal. Legal, but not moral and rare, no, not rare, if we keep sanctifying these places. Now, I suggest that when it comes to protecting rights, there are more rights that are ignored and left unprotected in the abortion tragedy than there are protected. I want everybody to be able to exercise their constitutional right and if indeed the police or the local authorities think there is going to be violence at an abortion clinic, send the police there, by all means. But do not, in this legislation, which is a block grant, which is not categorical, which says let the local people decide, do not elevate it to a position of a cathedral-of-compassion abortion mills, where in this country 1,500,000 abortions per year go on. Include them generically, but not specifically. It is your choice. I know how I am going to vote.

Mr. HYDE. Words to live by.

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman will continue to yield, the very language, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Gephardt] says, and he is a man of honor and integrity, ``you are the people that have got to show results and I think you are well equipped to try to figure out what to do with the money.'' Illinois has added----

Mr. HYDE. I hope not. I certainly hope not. I just suggest to the gentleman that we are in the anomalous situation of the gentleman espousing what the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Gingrich] says and we espousing the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Gephardt]. And this time, and this time alone, I think the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Gephardt] has the better of them.

Mr. HYDE. All sorts of things occurred to me.

Mr. HYDE. We are in the anomalous situation, Mr. Booth----