Major Owens: “I welcome the opportunity to use these special orders in order to tie together a number of very important things that…”

“I welcome the opportunity to use these special orders in order to tie together a number of very important things that are happening here with some of the kinds of catastrophes we see and the serious problems being experienced in my district. It is very difficult to relate to the constituents of one's district exactly what relevance the activities in Washington have to the day-to-day problems they face. But they are quite relevant. Whatever we do down here is quite relevant. We have just passed a crime bill out of the House of Representatives. It has gone to conference with the Senate, and that crime bill is quite relevant to what is happening with crime in my district and all other districts. The crime bill was passed, and it calls for billions of dollars to be expended to build more prisons. It also calls for a three-strikes-and-you're-out provision for people to be placed in prison of life. Some very expensive measures are included in the crime bill. However, very little money is included for programs that were introduced by the Congressional Black Caucus which call for preventive efforts to be financed by the Federal Government, more after-school centers for young people, midnight basketball programs, and more treatment programs for drug addicts. A number of the things that were accepted in the bill are accepted with such small amounts of money that they will be quite ineffective once they are implemented. The crime bill had some good features.…”