Political Quotes

“I come to floor today to discuss the new juvenile justice grant program contained in the appropriations bill for the Commerce, Justice, and State Departments. Of course, I would have preferred the appropriators to defer to the Judiciary Committee, which considered juvenile crime legislation for over a month and reported a bill to the Senate floor, so we could have a full debate and develop effective, comprehensive juvenile crime legislation. That said, I am pleased that the conference report addresses one of my primary concerns by relaxing the mandates contained in earlier proposals that would have required States to try more juveniles as adults to qualify for federal funding. Recall that the juvenile crime bill passed by the House of Representatives last spring would have disqualified States from receiving federal funds unless prosecutors had complete discretion to try certain 15-year-olds as adults. Similarly, as originally introduced, the Senate Republican's youth crime bill --S. 10--would have required States to give prosecutors unfettered discretion to try 14-year-olds as adults, even for minor crimes, to qualify for funding. S. 10 as passed by the Committee loosened this restriction substantially, by enabling States to qualify for funding so long as 14-year-olds were eligible to be tried as adults for serious violent crimes, which they already are in almost every State.”