May 12, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S6589

process by which Senator KERREY of

Nebraska and Senator BROWN of Colorado and others put together this package was, to me, a model of bipartisan

cooperation.

We did not hear much about it during

the 1994 campaign. People assumed

that everything that happens out here

is partisan. But that is not what I have

found. There are people in this body

who do want to get together on a bipartisan basis to solve the deficit problem.

They have done it. They have put a lot

of time into it. They are willing to do

it again.

For my part, I came away from that

process greatly encouraged that there

were Senators on both sides of the aisle

who were willing to band together to

find some common ground in reducing

the deficit, even if it meant bucking

the partisan political rhetoric of their

respective parties.

Mr. President, I believe that in this

104th Congress we can achieve that

kind of bipartisanship again, and I

want to signal today as we move into

next week of the budget resolution,

that I am not only ready but very

eager to participate in that bipartisan

effort. I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence

of a quorum.

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr.

GRAMS). The clerk will call the roll.

The bill clerk proceeded to call the

roll.

Mr. KEMPTHORNE. Mr. President, I

ask unanimous consent that the order

for the quorum call be rescinded.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without

objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. KEMPTHORNE. Mr. President, I

ORDER OF PROCEDURE

fask unanimous consent to be allowed

to go forward as though in morning

business.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without

objection, it is so ordered.

HONORING A COURAGEOUS YOUNG

GIRL, AND CARING COMMUNITY

fMr. KEMPTHORNE. Mr. President, I

would like to spend just a moment

talking about a courageous young girl

in my hometown of Boise, ID.

Nine-year-old Susie Hamilton, a

bright, vivacious, and loving girl suffers from a rare and deadly form of leukemia. She has been in and out of hospitals in Boise, Salt Lake City, and Seattle for the past 8 months. A bone

marrow transplant is her last hope for

life.

Mr. President, Susie is blessed with

two outstanding parents who are leaders in the community. Her father,

Steve, is a Boise Fire Department battalion chief, dedicated to saving lives. I

have worked with him personally on a

variety of projects. Her mother, Becky,

works at Boise Cascade Corp. Both

have spent many long hours away from

their jobs to tend to Susie’s needs.

There have been some rough times

for Susie, Steve, and Becky. I would

like to read from a newspaper column

by Tim Woodward in the Idaho Statesman, who wrote about this family:

Leukemia along is bad enough, but there

were other heartbreaks. When a match was

found for a donor after hundreds of tests, the

donor turned out to have hepatitis. Susie got

it through a transfusion. Last month, she

had to have a lung removed. When a doctor

praised her courage, she whispered, ‘‘What

choice, do I have? I want to live.’’

The community has responded, raising over $12,000 to offset medical bills.

Today there is a silent auction at Susie’s school to raise money. Boise firefighters have switched shifts so Steve

can spend time with Susie. Boise Cascade has given Becky as much time off

as she needs, and has even given the

family use of the corporate jet to fly to

Seattle.

This ribbon I am wearing, Mr. President, is just one more sign of the community’s willingness to rally around

their neighbor. Members of the police

and fire departments, sheriff’s department, workers at Boise Cascade, Susie’s classmates and teachers, employees at city hall, and others in Boise are

wearing these ribbons to show their

support for the family.

I would like to read this letter I just

received from Susie’s grandmother,

Barbara Dennett:

My Granddaughter, Susie, was diagnosed

with adult leukemia in October of 1994 and

since then has endured prolonged hospitalization for chemotherapy and several

surgery’s in Salt Lake. Susie is now in Seattle undergoing preparations for a bonemarrow transplant. This is her only chance

to overcome the leukemia—her only hope for

survival.

After searching for 8 months for a bone

marrow match, isn’t it ironic that on this

50th anniversary of World War II’s death and

horror, a German soldier will be the donor to

save the life of a little 9 year old girl in

America. I believe this to be a noteworthy

occasion.

This soldier was scheduled to go out on

maneuvers, which would delay the bone marrow transplant 15 more days, but chose to

make himself available for the draw instead

stating he did not wish for her to suffer a

minute longer than necessary. His bone marrow will be hand delivered from Germany to

Seattle. Hand carried, the transplant will

begin the minute it arrives.

Thank you for your time and consideration

in seeing that President Clinton receives this

information. When I told Susie, that every

one was praying for her all over the world,

she ask ‘‘even the President of the United

States?’’ How could I answer with anything

other than ‘‘yes, even the President’’. A card

or call from him would go a long way in

helping her believe that we are all telling her

the truth when we say that there is always

hope that she will be well again and a bright

future lies ahead.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to enter this letter into the

RECORD. I also ask unanimous consent

that the newspaper article be printed

in the RECORD.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the

RECORD, as follows:

SPECIAL 9-YEAR-OLD TOUCHES A CITY’S HEART

(By Tim Woodward)

If you’ve seen a Boise firefighter lately,

you may have noticed he was wearing a purple ribbon on his uniform.

They’re wearing purple at City Hall, too.

The mayor, city council members and other

office workers all have purple ribbons pinned

to their clothing.

Purple ribbons dot lapels at the Boise Cascade Corp., the Ada County Sheriff’s Department, Life Care Center, hospitals, doctors’

offices, Highlands School.

The ribbons are symbols of support for a

kid who has had more bad luck than any 9-

year-old deserves. Susie Hamilton has a rare

and deadly form of leukemia. She has been

out of hospitals nine days in the past eight

months. A bone marrow transplant is her

last hope for life.

Steve Hamilton, Susie’s father, is a battalion chief with the Boise Fire Department.

Hamilton has dedicated his life to saving

lives. Now his fellow firefighters are helping

him in the fight to save his daughter’s life.

When Susie got sick, the firefighters donated shifts so her father could be with her.

When she needed a marrow donor, the firefighters raised $4,000 and added 527 names to

the donor registry.

Susie’s mother, Becky Hamilton, works at

Boise Cascade. The company not only extended her leave time, it flew the family to

Seattle in a corporate jet when Susie needed

to see a specialist there.

On May 12, the fire department, Boise Cascade employees, the sheriff’s department,

Highlands School and civic groups will sponsor a silent auction to raise money for medical expenses. Businesses have donated raft

trips, airplane rides, bicycles and other

prizes. The auction will be at Highlands, Susie’s school.

‘‘Everywhere we go, whether it’s the hospital in Salt Lake or the one in Seattle, the

people we work with are just amazed at the

support network we have in Boise,’’ Steve

Hamilton said. ‘‘They say it’s unheard of in

this day and age to have that kind of community involvement.’’

So far, Boiseans have donated more than

$12,000 to the Susie Hamilton Leukemia Account (200 N. 4th St, Boise, ID 83702). Velma

Morrison dropped by last week with a check

for $2,500.

One of Susie’s grandmothers helped her

write a children’s book. ‘‘Lillie the Laughing

Giraffe Loses Her Spots and That’s No

Laughing Matter’’ will go on sale May 12.

Boise’s Legendary Publishing Co. donated its

services. All of the proceeds will be used for

Susie’s medical expenses.

‘‘Boise is known as the City of Trees, but

to me it’s the city of love,’’ Susie said. ‘‘. . .

I’ve learned a lot about love and friendship

and caring since I got sick. I want to thank

everyone who has helped me—my friends, my

family and people I’ll never get a chance to

meet.’’

Leukemia alone is bad enough, but there

were other heartbreaks. When a match was

found for a donor after hundreds of tests, the

donor turned out to have hepatitis. Susie got

it through a transfusion.

Last month, she had to have a lung removed. When a doctor praised her courage,

she whispered, ‘‘What choice do I have? I

want to live.’’

The search for a donor was worldwide. The

winner: a soldier in the German army. The

transplant will be May 10, in Seattle.

Hundreds of people will be thinking about

a brave little girl that day.

They’ll be saying prayers, wearing purple

ribbons, hoping a miracle will save a life

that has touched a city’s heart.
S6590 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE May 12, 1995

Mr. KEMPTHORNE. I have good news

today, Mr. President. Susie Hamilton

underwent 15 hours of surgery yesterday at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer

Center in Seattle, receiving the bone

marrow from that German soldier. I

am pleased to say early reports are

positive, and the prognosis is good.

Mr. President, I will be sending a ribbon just like this to the White House

today so that President Clinton can affirm to Susie through correspondence

that everyone is praying for her speedy

and thorough recovery so that we can

all affirm that there is always hope

where there is prayer, and that truly

people all over the world are praying

for Susie, and to acknowledge the support of the community of Boise and all

of Susie’s friends as they rally around

a neighbor, which I think is the spirit

that does bring about not only hope

but the positive results that we want.

Mr. President, I thank you. I suggest

the absence of a quorum.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The

clerk will call the role.

The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

Mr. DEWINE. Mr. President, I ask

unanimous consent that the order for

the quorum call be rescinded.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without

objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. DEWINE. Mr. President, I further

ask unanimous consent that I might

proceed now as in morning business.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without

objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. DEWINE. Mr. President, today, I

VICTIMS’ RIGHTS

fwant to continue my discussion on the

crime bill that I intend to introduce in

the Senate next week.

As I have pointed out in previous

speeches on this issue, there are really

two fundamental issues that we always

need to address when we look at the

question of a crime bill, when we look

at whether it is a good crime bill or

whether it is not, when we look at

whether it gets the job done or not.

The first question is: What is the proper role of the Federal Government in

fighting crime in this country, understanding that 90 to 95 percent of all

criminal prosecution is not done at the

Federal level, but rather done at the

local level, the State level, the county

level? What is the role of the Federal

Government?

The second question we always have

to ask is, despite all the rhetoric: What

really works in the area of law enforcement? What really matters? And, conversely, what does not matter?

On Wednesday of this week, I discussed these issues with specific reference to crimefighting technology.

The conclusion I reached was that we

have an outstanding technological base

in this country that will do a great

deal to help us catch criminals.

Mr. President, technology does, in

fact, matter.

However, we do need the Federal

Government to be more proactive in

this area, more proactive in getting the

States on line with this technology and

giving the States the assets they need

to get that job done.

Having a terrific national criminal

records system or huge DNA data base

for convicted sex offenders in Washington, DC, is great—but it will not do

much good for the police officer in

Lucas County, Hamilton County, and

Franklin County, OH, or if other jurisdictions across this country cannot tap

into it, cannot get the information out

or, conversely, cannot put the information in.

Mr. President, crime occurs locally.

So we have to make sure the

crimefighting resources—such as hightech data bases—are, in fact, available

to local law enforcement. And one of

the principal provisions of the bill that

I will introduce next week does just

that, drives that home to the thousands, tens of thousands of local law

enforcement agencies scattered

throughout our 50 States.

Mr. President, on Thursday of this

week, I discussed a second issue—what

we have to do to get armed career

criminals off our streets. At that time,

I talked specifically about a program

called Project Triggerlock that targeted gun criminals for Federal prosecution.

Mr. President, Project Triggerlock

worked. It got 15,000—15,000—armed career criminals off the streets in just 18

months. But, incredibly, the Clinton

administration abolished this program.

My legislation, Mr. President, would

bring back Project Triggerlock, and

toughen the laws on gun crimes in

many other significant ways. It is

clear, if we are going to be tough on

crime and do things that really matter,

we have to get armed career criminals

off our streets.

Today, I would like to turn to a third

provision of my crime bill, a third

issue, and it is an issue that is near and

dear to my heart as a former county

prosecuting attorney, and that is the

people that we many times forget in

our criminal justice system, the victims of crime.

Today, I would like to talk about

that component of my crime legislation. I would like to discuss some of

the measures I think we ought to take

in the area of victims’ rights.

The late Hubert Humphrey said, in a

much admired and much quoted comment:

The moral test of Government is how that

Government treats those who are in the

dawn of life, the children; those who are in

the twilight of life, the elderly; and those

who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the

needy, and the handicapped.

What the former Vice President and

former U.S. Senator said, what he was

talking about was the fundamental

role of Government to protect the

weak, to protect those citizens who

could not protect themselves. That is

why, I submit, Mr. President, I think

victims of crime belong on that list, as

well.

For too long, victims have been forgotten by our judicial system. From

start to finish, the legal system can be

a terrible ordeal for the victims—a bureaucratic nightmare that seems to

and, in fact, does many times, go on

and on and on.

In our Constitution, we have all

kinds of protections for the rights of

defendants, as well we should. We try

to make sure that they have every possible chance—and that is good—because we do not know if the defendants

are guilty. We want to know if they

have justice. That is why we bend over

backwards to be fair to anyone accused

of crime.

Mr. President, in the process, I believe that many times we have forgotten the victims of crime.

Over the last few decades, we have

made some progress in this area. We

have made some progress in recognizing the rights of victims. When I was a

county prosecutor in the 1970’s, I saw

too many crime victims, people who

had already been hurt, hurt a second

time by a callous legal system. That is

why I did everything that I could to

protect the rights of those victims.

Today, the legal process, in spite of

changes, in spite of reforms, in spite of

progress that we have made, is still too

brutal on the victims. Our bottom line

has to be this: To be victimized once by

a crime is already once too often. To be

victimized yet again by an uncaring judicial system is totally, totally unacceptable.

There are some measures we should

take as part of this year’s crime legislation to continue the process of making the legal system treat crime victims with greater fairness and with

greater consideration. Let me talk

about a few of these.

No. 1, let us make sure that crime

does not pay. Today, a Federal trial

court may—may—order restitution for

crimes. I think that in every case they

should order restitution for crimes. I

think we should mandate full restitution in all Federal criminal cases.

No. 2, let us stop the brutalization of

victims in our courts. Under current

law, lawyers are not allowed to present

evidence that they know is false. That

is a basic tenet of judicial ethics for

lawyers. Every law student learns that

early on. But what defense lawyers can

do under our current system is this: If

they have a crime victim on the stand,

a crime victim whom they know is telling the truth, defense lawyers are still

allowed to make it look like that witness is lying. Defense lawyers can do

this even though they know the witness is telling the truth. My legislation

would prohibit this practice.

No. 3, let us make the trial process

more fair to the victims. Under the

Constitution, a defendant has the

right, if he so chooses, not to testify in

his own defense. This is a very important constitutional right. It is imperative that we always protect this. This