John Conyers: “Mr. Chairman, we are considering the Crimes Against Children and Elderly Persons Prevention and Protection Act. There…”

“Mr. Chairman, we are considering the Crimes Against Children and Elderly Persons Prevention and Protection Act. There have been comments and criticisms raised that this legislation was necessary because the Commission on Sentencing did not implement adequately the congressional directive found in the violent crime bill of 1994. I wish to review this for the edification of the Members because the legislative language that we instructed the Sentencing Commission was thought to not require specific amendment action on the part of the Sentencing Commission but, rather, required an analysis, a thorough analysis, of certain areas of the guidelines to ensure that those identified objectives were going to be obtained. The Sentencing Commission conducted that analysis as instructed and, contrary to assertions that have been made here on the floor, it also additionally amended the guidelines to better address the desired objectives. I am suggesting that the Sentencing Commission has not been sleeping on the job but as a matter of fact has been doing precisely what the committee, through the Congress, has instructed them to do.”