Political Quotes

“May I suggest that we do not know what the various States are really doing on a State basis, and so we now have another qualification in the prison construction bill that tells the States what they must do to qualify for construction funds, and then we are now telling them how to run bail bonding at the same time, and then the gentleman from California [Mr. Riggs] is resisting the modest proposal of the gentleman from California [Mr. Berman] which might make it at least palatable to the gentleman from California [Mr. Berman], even if it is does not for myself. So I now find myself more often defending States' and local governments' rights to determine what their laws are going to be. Is there some assumption built into this amendment the States do not know when they have a dangerous crime or a person who may not show up in court, and that the only way that we are going to get them to show up in court is that we give a 15-percent set-aside in prison construction money for them to build more jails? And is that the real reason that they are not keeping people who you apparently think ought to be put on bail? I mean, what are we doing in this process? Why are we here now?…”