Steve Buyer: “I appreciate the discussion from the gentlewoman from Houston, because I remember back in the 1994 crime bill discussion…”

“I appreciate the discussion from the gentlewoman from Houston, because I remember back in the 1994 crime bill discussion and the whole issue about midnight basketball and crime prevention programs. And what the dispute was about at the time was the Federal Government having a one-size-fits-all program, saying, here is the criteria and you force it down, and force all communities in America to comply with this standard that is set out here in Washington. The Republican philosophy is that in fact we support prevention programs. What we do not appreciate is the arrogance of the Federal Government in Washington dictating to our communities what they should and should not do. So that is why I compliment the leadership of the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Bill McCollum, basically sending that message out. I remember his debates while he was in the minority during the crime bill, and he felt as though he was a voice with no one listening, but I was listening, and I think many in America in fact were. When we look out there, there are only so many different things that we have. We have the education, prevention, rehabilitation, retribution, restitution, deterrence, and there was this overfocus, overfocus on the rehabilitative side and prevention and education, to the point where they began to be coddling the criminal. Then we took a step back and said, wait a minute, let us bring better balance to the judicial system.”