Bob Barr: “I think what we are debating here today really needs to be put in the context of what the Government is currently doing…”

“I think what we are debating here today really needs to be put in the context of what the Government is currently doing and what remains undone, which is what this bill, H.R. 3, aims to do. Mr. Chairman, lest anybody be left with the impression that the Federal Government is not expending tremendous sums of taxpayer money on prevention, at-risk, and delinquent youth programs, I have here two charts that list in summary form various of the 131 current programs administered by 16 different departments and other agencies totaling $4 billion, that is $4 billion, that are currently being used of Federal taxpayer money in communities all across America for prevention programs involving the youth of our country. Mr. Chairman, I would like to see those on the other side that believe so strongly in prevention work with us to determine if any of these programs are not working, so that we can reconfigure the Federal moneys, change these programs, perhaps consolidate some of them, perhaps so they work better, because they are not working comprehensively now. A case in point, and this is the chink in the armor that H.R. 3 must fill, just a couple of months ago in Atlanta, GA, in my home State, a 13-year-old youth, a drug gang wanna-be, was walking down the streets of Atlanta in broad daylight, and shot to death a father walking with his two children.”