Biden, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, largely wrote and shepherded through the legislative process The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994.
Would Trump have supported most of that Bill?
violent crime rate, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics, increased by 39 percent from 1983 to 1993, the year before the crime bill was passed.
It was the largest crime bill in the history of the United States
100,000 new police officers
$9.7 billion in funding for prisons
$6.1 billion in funding for prevention programs which were designed with input from police officers.
It was Sponsored by U.S. Representative Jack Brooks of Texas
and passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
Biden drafted the Senate version of the bill in cooperation with National Association of Police Organizations
Provisions
- Federal Assault Weapons Ban
- Federal Death Penalty Act
- Elimination of higher education for inmates
- Violence Against Women Act
- Driver's Privacy Protection Act
- Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act
- Community Oriented Policing Services
- Violent Offender Incarceration and Truth-in-Sentencing Incentive Grants Program
Also:
- Three-strikes” mandatory life sentences for repeat violent offenders (proposed by Sen. Trent Lott)
- increased federal crimes subject to the death penalty
- enabled juveniles to be tried as adults for violent and firearm-involved federal crimes.
- toughened sentences for crack cocaine possession
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Biden:
In the 1980s and 1990s violent crime was out of control. The crime bill was designed to deal with that problem. That’s why it was supported overwhelmingly by the Democratic Party, by African American leaders all across the nation, including a majority of the black caucus in the Congress.
Biden:
[The crime bill] worked in some areas. But it failed in others. … The violent crime rate was cut in half in America.
In 2016 the Brennan Center for Justice wrote the bill “likely helped” in the large decrease in crime “not by locking people up, but by putting more cops on the street, studies show.” The authors said, “Research also indicates smarter policing tactics, like the ones funded by the bill, and social and economic factors — like an aging population and decreased alcohol consumption — played a role in the crime decline as well.”
Biden:
But it was opposed by Republicans, people like Mitch McConnell, not because they thought it was too tough, because they thought it was too soft. They felt it dedicated too much money to things like prevention. … Remember they had those prisoners dancing in tutus saying Biden wants to have after-school programs, Biden wants to have prevention programs.
In 1993 had near universal support in the Senate, McConnell voting supporting but in August 1994 all but 8 Republican senators voted for it
McConnell switched his vote Republicans thought the bill had grown too “soft”; they objected to additional "pork" spending in the final bill "bill basically about social workers and not police officers” McConnell said.
He and other Republicans objected to $377 million dollars being spent over five years to states for various including midnight basketball leagues that included job training and other educational programs.
Bob Dole added the bill “fails to include a number of important tough-on-crime proposals adopted by the Senate last November.”
However report published with Department of Justice funding in 2000 found that, except in California, the state and federal 3-strikes laws had “virtually no impact on the courts, local jails or state prisons. Nor does there appear to be an impact on crime rates” , this type of legislation was “carefully crafted to be largely symbolic,” and also that courts and prosecutors had lessened the impact.
The report said “On their own, states passed three-strikes laws, enacted mandatory minimums, eliminated parole, and removed judicial discretion in sentencing. By dangling bonus dollars, the crime bill encouraged states to remain on their tough-on-crime course.”
Trump would not have supported the Federal Assault Weapons Ban (which
expired in 2004 by a sunset provision) and maybe not the "pork barrel" programs but
would trump have supported most of the the bulleted provisions at top had he been a Senator?
Biden announced if presidential campaign on April 25, 2019.
Earlier, in January he said at an MLK Day breakfast event also attended by Mike Bloomberg, about the crime bill he said:
"It was a big mistake that was made," We were told by the experts that 'With crack you can never go back.'"...
"It's trapped an entire generation."
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