Political Quotes

“at the heart of the amendments being offered by Senators Cotton and Kennedy is an effort to provide notification to crime victims. I spoke to this early this morning, and I think it bears repeating. It is interesting to note that they are arguing that their amendments are necessary for the sake of crime victims. At the same time, virtually every leading organization in America representing crime victims supports our bill and opposes the amendment being offered by Senators Cotton and Kennedy. Why do they oppose it? Because we already have a law. The law says if you are a victim of crime, you have certain rights written into the statute--some 10 specific areas where you have the right to be consulted or notified if you are a victim and you want to know what is going to happen to the person who is accused of the crime of which you were a victim. It is only right that we do that, and we have done it for a long time. We also have regulatory provisions where the Bureau of Prisons will not release someone without notification to the crime victims. So there is a healthy pattern established by law that victims of crime in the United States have the right to receive all of this information and, in some cases, can actually participate in the proceeding. We voted on that on a bipartisan basis years ago. That is the way it should be. So what does the Cotton-Kennedy amendment add when it comes to crime victims? It adds something that the crime victims organizations oppose.…”