Orrin Hatch: “we brought this bill to the floor, and it has taken a large effort to get it here. We have worked very hard with the…”

“we brought this bill to the floor, and it has taken a large effort to get it here. We have worked very hard with the administration. We have worked with Senator Biden and the Justice Department, and the vast majority of this bill is agreed to. There seems to be one major contentious issue--and I think we can resolve that by amendments one way or the other--and that happens to be the habeas corpus provision, which the President called for last night. The President has called for us to pass this bill. He has called for us to pass habeas corpus reform on this bill. A while back, he did not feel he wanted it on this bill, but last night he did call for it. It is the appropriate time to get it done. I am disappointed to say that we are in the middle of making this a gun control bill. I hate to say it, but we are going to have another opportunity on the crime bill when it comes to the floor of debating these gun issues. Why should we gum up the antiterrorism bill with a bunch of gun provisions? When it comes to addressing our Nation's crime problems, the liberals in Congress and the media have proposed gun control. When the Nation calls on us to get tough on criminals, the liberals drag out the carcass of gun control. The fact is that when the going got tough, the liberals would embrace gun control over tough reform. That is nothing new to us.…”