Political Quotes

“I will speak on a matter involving the juvenile justice conference--or, perhaps more accurately, I should say the lack of a conference on the juvenile justice bill. It is a matter that concerns me greatly because I was the floor leader on this side and the distinguished Senator from Utah was the floor leader on the other side when we had over a week of debate on the juvenile justice bill. We had a very solid debate. We then passed the bill with 73 votes in the Senate. It went to conference, and it was like going into the Bermuda Triangle; we haven't seen it since. Actually, this Congress has kept the country waiting too long for action on juvenile justice legislation and has kept the country waiting too long on sensible gun safety laws. We are fast approaching the first-year anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO. It has been 11 months since 14 students and a teacher lost their lives in that terrible tragedy on April 20, 1999. It has been 10 months since the Senate passed the Hatch-Leahy juvenile justice bill. As I said before, it was an overwhelming vote of 73-25. Our bipartisan bill includes modest--and I believe effective--gun provisions. It has been 9 months since the House of Representatives passed its own juvenile crime bill, which was on June 17, 1999. Then the leadership in the Congress delayed action on calling a conference all summer.”