James Traficant: “one of the greatest reforms Congress could make would probably would be to grant statehood to the citizens of D.C. There…”

“one of the greatest reforms Congress could make would probably would be to grant statehood to the citizens of D.C. There are more taxpayers in the District than in some of our States. I do not want to get off on that subject. But there are a couple things I want to say here because I have an amendment and this amendment has been worked out, and I want to thank the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), maybe one of the best representatives in the country. And I thank her because I know she is a bulldog in taking care of her constituents, and I appreciate it. I want to discuss what my amendment will do and what it will not do. It will not demean D.C. and does not attempt to close the prison or to slam D.C. at all. D.C. closed Lorton. They had a problem. They had to do something with their prisoners. The country was wide open; and my district, desperate for jobs, signed a contract, and the district has lived up to their commitment. The question is, are we getting and have we been getting medium security level risks? To clarify and codify, my amendment will state that none of the funds in the bill can be used to transfer or confine inmates in that Youngstown private, for-profit prison that are above the medium security level. And we will use the Federal Bureau of Prisons standards to make such determination.”