Political Quotes

“I thank the ranking member of the subcommittee, and I thank the manager and, as well, the full committee chairperson and the ranking member of the full committee. I think it would not be inappropriate to acknowledge that many of us gathered in the Judiciary Committee to wish Congressman Mel Watt well, so I will do so now on the floor of the House. I am supporting this bill and again offer my appreciation for the Crime Subcommittee's bipartisan efforts to look into our problem with criminalization at the start of the Congress. I am concerned that there are a number of issues that were not discussed, but this particular legislation is an important step, which I know that the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott) has worked on quite extensively. The bill before us today, in essence, requires States that receive certain criminal justice assistance grants to report to the Attorney General on a quarterly basis certain information regarding the death of any person who is detained, arrested, en route to incarceration, or incarcerated in State or local facilities or at boot camp. H.R. 1447 also imposes penalties on States that fail to comply with such reporting requirements. The bill also requires the head of each Federal law enforcement agency to report to the Attorney General annually certain information regarding the death of any person. My focus is to indicate that this is a practical initiative.…”