May 20, 1999
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE
Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, on the Biden amendment, Biden-Kohl-Schumer-Boxer-Specter amendment, it is very basic. Every major police organization in the country endorses this amendment. It adds a total of $600 million a year for the next 5 years for cops and $200 million a year for the next 5 years for prosecutors. It is endorsed by every major police organization. I hope my colleagues will vote for it. I yield back the remainder of my time. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah. Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, our bill is $1.1 billion per year. This is a $7 billion add-on. The fact of the matter is, we are going to have a Department of Justice authorization bill in the future. We will look at this and try to do it. We will have hearings on it, and we will do it the right way. It shouldn’t be done on this bill. I yield back the remainder of my time. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to amendment No. 371. The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk called the roll. Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Arizona (Mr. MCCAIN) is necessarily absent. Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. HOLLINGS) is necessarily absent. The result was announced—yeas 48, nays 50, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 139 Leg.] YEAS—48
Abraham Akaka Baucus Bayh Biden Bingaman Boxer Breaux Bryan Byrd Cleland Conrad Daschle Dodd Dorgan Durbin Edwards Feingold Feinstein Graham Harkin Inouye Jeffords Johnson Kennedy Kerrey Kerry Kohl Landrieu Lautenberg Leahy Levin Lieberman Lincoln Mikulski Moynihan Murray Reed Reid Robb Rockefeller Roth Sarbanes Schumer Specter Torricelli Wellstone Wyden
S5709
Mr. HATCH. I ask for the yeas and nays on final passage. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There is a sufficient second. The yeas and nays were ordered.
VOTE ON AMENDMENT NO. 345, AS MODIFIED
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to amendment No. 345, as modified. The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk called the roll. Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Arizona (Mr. MCCAIN) is necessarily absent. Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Louisiana (Ms. LANDRIEU) and the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. HOLLINGS) are necessarily absent. The result was announced—yeas 41, nays 56, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 138 Leg.] YEAS—41
Allard Ashcroft Bennett Bond Bunning Burns Byrd Campbell Chafee Cochran Coverdell Craig Crapo DeWine Domenici Enzi Fitzgerald Frist Gorton Grassley Hatch Helms Hutchison Inhofe Kohl Kyl Lott Lugar McConnell Murkowski Roberts Rockefeller Roth Sessions Shelby Smith (NH) Specter Stevens Thomas Thurmond Warner
NAYS—56
Abraham Akaka Baucus Bayh Biden Bingaman Boxer Breaux Brownback Bryan Cleland Collins Conrad Daschle Dodd Dorgan Durbin Edwards Feingold Feinstein Graham Gramm Grams Gregg Hagel Harkin Hutchinson Inouye Jeffords Johnson Kennedy Kerrey Kerry Lautenberg Leahy Levin Lieberman Lincoln Mack Mikulski Moynihan Murray Nickles Reed Reid Robb Santorum Sarbanes Schumer Smith (OR) Snowe Thompson Torricelli Voinovich Wellstone Wyden
NOT VOTING—3
Hollings Landrieu McCain
Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote. Mr. LEAHY. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
VOTE ON AMENDMENT NO. 371
NAYS—50
Allard Ashcroft Bennett Bond Brownback Bunning Burns Campbell Chafee Cochran Collins Coverdell Craig Crapo DeWine Domenici Enzi Fitzgerald Frist Gorton Gramm Grams Grassley Gregg Hagel Hatch Helms Hutchinson Hutchison Inhofe Kyl Lott Lugar Mack McConnell Murkowski Nickles Roberts Santorum Sessions Shelby Smith (NH) Smith (OR) Snowe Stevens Thomas Thompson Thurmond Voinovich Warner
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the remaining votes—there are two of them in a series—be limited to 10 minutes in length. Senators, please don’t leave the room. We are actually going to see if we can do one in 10 minutes. It is this one right now. Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, will the distinguished majority leader allow a minute on each side just prior to the vote? Mr. LOTT. Usually we do that. I hope that we will not exceed that. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
NOT VOTING—2
Hollings McCain
The amendment (No. 371) was rejected. Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote. Mr. NICKLES. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I am grateful to Senators HATCH, ALLARD, ASHCROFT, and SESSIONS who have spent countless hours over the past two Congresses addressing the complex issues of school safety and juvenile violence. And, needless to say, I deeply appreciate their accommodating my concerns regarding a bill that I regard as among the most significant pieces of legislation to be considered this Congress—and for their having included three of my amendments in the manager’s education package. When enacted, these provisions will improve access to public school disciplinary records by other schools; expand the authority of schools to run a national criminal background check on their employees; and encourage State and local governments to run such checks on all school employees who are charged with providing educational and support services to our children. Together, these provisions will make sure that local public, private, and parochial schools are able to make informed decisions about these individuals—whether a student, a teacher, or other school employee—who pose an unreasonable risk to the safety and security of our children. Mr. President, we all share a common responsibility to protect our children and a common hope that our children will have a bright future. Though we disagree on the wisdom of creating more gun control laws, there are things that we ought to agree are necessary and in our children’s best interests. In this spirit, I introduced a bill in the past two Congresses seeking to extend the provisions of the Gun-Free Schools Act to illegal drugs. This amendment is based on that bill and is cosponsored by the distinguished Assistant Majority Leader, Mr. NICKLES, and the distinguished Senator from South Carolina, Mr. THURMOND. I trust that this amendment will be looked upon favorably by Senators on both sides of the aisle. Mr. President, this amendment will strike an important blow in the war against drugs by helping to protect America’s school-children from the scourge of drugs in their classrooms. It does this by requiring States to adopt a low mandating ‘‘zero tolerance’’ for illegal drugs at school in order to qualify for Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) funds. Zero tolerance is defined as requiring any student in possession of a felonious quantity of this contraband at school to be expelled for not less than one year. Its adoption will finally send a clear unambiguous message to students, parents, and teachers—drugs and schools do not mix. Anybody who questions the necessity of this measure should consider these excerpts from the 1998 CASA National Survey of Teens, Teachers and Principals. This outstanding report was