Dianne Feinstein: “There is always room in the trench to change his mind, if the Senator cares to. I do appreciate his concern and his…”

“There is always room in the trench to change his mind, if the Senator cares to. I do appreciate his concern and his testimony does carry weight with me. As a matter of fact, it was Senator Schumer's comment in the Record that I referred to last night when I addressed and talked with the attorneys in Oklahoma City today who represented the victims--Professor Cassell was one of them--and got that chronology. To me, the reason the statute won't work is because it hasn't worked. Both Houses of Congress, and even the redoubtable intelligence of the Senator in working on both the 1990 and the 1997 statute, rendered both a nullity by the Tenth Circuit. Therefore, they were victims in that entire circuit and are effectively left without a remedy, and the belief is that it would be difficult in that circuit, based on the precedent that has been set, without providing standing for victims in the Constitution under article III, to have a successful statute. Now, I don't believe many victims have the wherewithal to get a professor of law at a distinguished university and a Washington law firm. The people who are going to be the most impacted by this are poor, are minorities, where most of the crime victims, after all, really are in the Nation. So the ability for them to get redress under a statute, I think, is effectively quite limited. Addressing the second part about the drafting of this article, we have been at this for 4 years. There are 800 pages of testimony, as I have mentioned.…”