Henry Hyde

Mr. HYDE

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Chairman, if I may reclaim my time, I think under the block grant concept it ought to be up to local government. If they want to send police there, they ought to send them, and, if they do not, they ought not, and we should not tell them how to deploy their policemen.

Mr. HYDE. And 1\1/2\ million abortions a year in this country.

Mr. HYDE. If they just performed abortion, the gentlewoman would not want them protected?

Mr. HYDE. Please do.

Mr. HYDE. May I yield to the gentlewoman from Colorado and then to the gentleman from Massachusetts?

Mr. HYDE. I appreciate what the gentleman says, and indeed the gentleman and I are on the same side. I just want to say the reason the gentlewoman's subsequent amendment is flawed is it continues to erode the notion of block grants, which is that the call for where these policemen should go and with what equipment shall be made by the unit of local government, not us here in Washington. It is that simple.

Mr. HYDE. Does the gentleman say they are entitled to freedom of speech?

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

Mr. HYDE. Mr. Chairman, we are going to revisit this debate when the gentlewoman offers her amendment. So we are in for a bit of a debate here. Just in passing, I must say, if it were not so tragic, it would be amusing. The wordsmiths on the other side use euphemisms like reproductive rights when they are talking about abortion. Why do they not call it abortion? Let us be intellectually honest. Or is there something unpleasant about that word? There is nothing reproductive about killing an unborn child. The gentlewoman wants to elevate reproductive health clinics, anything but what she really means, which is abortion clinics, or abortion mills. She wants to elevate that to a very special place where the bill, the block grant program, will specify they get special protection. Now, I am not against abortion clinics getting protection by the police if they reasonably expect violence or a threat to safety. I say that clearly. The gentleman from Missouri may not agree with me, but threats to safety; it is the business of government to protect people from threats to safety. So I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is elevating abortion clinics to a special status over other places where an awful lot of killing really goes on. In 1993 there were 1,946 people killed in New York. In the great District of Columbia there were 454 murders. In Chicago, my city, there were 845 murders. How many cab drivers have been murdered in their cabs? We cannot specify every place, every location, every convenience store, every liquor store, every currency exchange that is going to be threatened by robbery and people with guns that are going to kill people. Communities where there are gangs that are armed; you cannot spell it all out, especially in the block grant program. I agree with the gentleman from Massachusetts, when we start eroding the notion that this is within the call--it is the call of the local government, by suggesting drug courts and suggesting violence against women, we have ourselves eroded the concept of the block grant. I could not agree more; logic forces me to do that. However, because we did it two times does not mean we need to do it 20 times. Now what we are doing here with the amendment offered by the gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Schiff] is we are broadening the concept that wherever the public safety is threatened, and that includes abortion clinics, if that, but to specify them gives them a status that I am, frankly, unwilling to yield, and that is where I come down.

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. We are on the same side. We are on the same side. But nobody has the right to violate and create a threat to public safety.

Mr. HYDE. Only if in their judgment the public safety is endangered. Surely the gentleman does not want the public safety endangered by any group that is picketing.

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

Mr. HYDE. The gentleman knows how I feel about abortion and am very much opposed to killing unborn children. But I suggest to the gentleman that under the block grant concept wherever the public safety is at risk, and this is in the judgment of the local officials, they are permitted to employ policemen or security anywhere in risk. Now this could be around abortion clinics, and I know the gentleman feels that is picking on the pro-life moment. I regret that. I do not want to pick on the pro-life movement, but if safety is jeopardized, then it seems to me the local community authorities have the right and ought to have the right to have policemen there protecting the public safety, and I do not see that as a violation of my commitment nor the gentleman's commitment to the pro-life cause.

Mr. HYDE. We correct that here. We have ways of correcting that. We learned from LEAA, and we are building on that experience. But would the gentleman yield on the Schiff amendment?

Mr. HYDE. I hope the gentleman knows I supported LEAA. I voted for it. I had some concerns and they were good concerns because the LEAA was mismanaged. We correct that in our bill, but I supported LEAA. Did the gentleman know that? I do not think he did or he would not have brought it up.

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

Mr. HYDE. Just like Washington.

Mr. HYDE

Mr. HYDE. I yield to my friend the gentleman from New York.

Mr. HYDE. Truth-in-sentencing.

Mr. HYDE. Right. Honor. Integrity.

Mr. HYDE. I just want to comment, Mr. Speaker, on the recent remarks of the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Frank] about frequent fliers. I must say, it is an issue that has troubled me. I accumulate them, and there is a concern, because they are acquired by flying with Government-paid airfare. However, in 20 years here, I have noticed that this job, this work, creates an awful strain on the family. Sometimes Members like to have their spouses fly with them to see what they are doing and where they work. Sometimes the children like to fly with them. We are trying to establish a family-friendly place. I must say, Mr. Speaker, I am torn about the uses of these frequent fliers miles. If it can keep a family sharing the work that is done, the issues, the responsibilities, I do not think it is all a bad thing. That is all I want to say.

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

Mr. HYDE. I do not criticize midnight basketball at all. I think it is a great way to spend your hours from midnight till 3 a.m. I do wonder how you get up and go to school the next day, but I will leave that to deeper thinkers than I am.

Mr. HYDE. Reclaiming my time, if someone is sentenced to a term of years, the public is entitled to know that term of years is pretty close to what he is going to serve. If it is too low a term of years, they will get new judges. But I welcome the gentleman's conversion to block grants.