THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                            August 11, 1994


                  PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE PRESIDENT


                          The Briefing Room




6:15 P.M. EDT


             THE PRESIDENT:  Ladies and gentlemen, under any
circumstances I would be disappointed if the House of Representatives
turned its back on the toughest and largest attack on crime in the
history of our country, at a time when the American people say it is
the most important issue to them.

             But it is especially disheartening to see 225 members of
the House participate in a procedural trick orchestrated by the
National Rifle Association, then heavily, heavily pushed by the
Republican leadership in the House, and designed with only one thing
in mind -- to put the protection of particular interests over the
protection of ordinary Americans.

             I don't know how many people in the run up to this vote
-- of both parties, unfortunately -- told me, "I'll vote for that
bill, but I just have to vote against this procedural bill."  "Oh,
I'll vote for it if it ever gets to the floor, but I just have to
vote against this rule" -- because of the assault weapons ban or
because they had decided, many of them after the fact, that there was
too much money in here for preventing crime and to give our children
something to say yes to instead of something just to say no to, even
though two-thirds of this money is for police and prisons and
punishment.

             Well, tonight a majority of the House attempted to take
the easy way out.  But they have failed the American people.  And now
I say to them, the easy way out is not an option.  Fear and violence,
especially among our children, will still be there tonight when they
go home to bed.  So I want them to come back tomorrow and the day
after that and the day after that, and to keep coming back until we
give the American people the essential elements of this crime bill --
until we put 100,000 police on the street, and take our children and
the guns off the street with the assault weapons ban and with the ban
on ownership of handguns by juveniles; until we make three strikes
and you're out the law of the land.

             We have got to do these things.  And, yes, we have to
both build more prisons and give our kids something to say yes to,
not just something to say no to.  The amazing thing is that this
prevention money was supported by every major law enforcement
organization in the United States, representing over a half a million
police officers who know something about fighting crime and putting
their lives on the line.

             Today's vote is a vote against all of them -- those
people in law enforcement who stand out day in and day out and try to
make our streets safer.  It's a vote against their organizations who
pleaded for this bill, the sheriffs, the police chiefs, the
prosecutors, the attorneys general; a vote against the teachers and
the others who work to keep our kids safe and secure; a vote against
the Democratic mayor of Chicago and the Republican mayors of New York
and Los Angeles.  It's a vote against the families of children like
James Darby and Polly Klaas who have been killed.

             Now, we can do better than this.  And I want the
Congress and the House to go back to work tomorrow and figure out how
to save the elements of this crime bill.  This is about the American
people.  It is their number one concern.  And the American people are
not foolish enough to be conned into believing that people are really
for doing something about crime, but they had to pull a political
trick to keep the bill from being voted on.

             Q    Mr. President, where do you go from here?  Some of
the main supporters of the bill say it's dead.

             THE PRESIDENT:  Oh, I don't think so.  But, of course,
that's what we were all worried about.  We were afraid that this
would be like Humpty Dumpty, you know.  And, of course, that's what
they want --the people that are fighting against it.  But they're
going to be given a chance.

             You know, for the last few days, all they heard from
were the special interest and people that had been stirred up by a
lot of the disinformation that had been put out.  But tonight I think
they've got a lot of explaining to do, because we know -- you all
know -- that there were a majority of votes in the House for this,
and the bill still went down on the rule because they thought they
could pull a political trick and satisfy particular pressures on them
without aggravating the rank and file citizens of this country.  I
think they're wrong; I think the people will figure it out.

             Q    But there were 58 Democrats, Mr. President --

             Q    Mr. President, are you saying that you will keep
the Congress in session until this is done?  Are you going to keep
the Congress in session?

             THE PRESIDENT:   I don't think they ought to go home.
You know, the people who are committing these crimes are not going to
take a vacation, they're going to be out there working overtime.

             Q    Mr. President, there were 58 Democrats, including
10 members of the Black Caucus, one Republican member of the Black
Caucus.  What do you say to them?  They went against you on this
issue.

             THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I say, first of all, let's look at
the whole thing.  There were 20 fewer Democrats voting against the
rule than those who voted against the assault weapons ban.  So there
were 20 Democrats -- probably 30 -- who said, "Okay, I lost that
fight.  But the safety of the people in my district is more important
than my view on this particular issue, and certainly more important
than my killing this bill on a procedural vote."  They were very
brave.  They stood up and took a lot of heat.

             Now,   there were 10 members of the Black Caucus whose
opposition to the death penalty was so strong that they could not
overcome their personal opposition.  At least they had a principled
position.  But almost three times that many, including many who were
disappointed because they didn't get what they wanted in that bill,
still voted for it.

             There were 11 brave Republicans who weathered enormous
pressure.  But there were 38 who voted against the assault weapons
ban and there were 65 -- 65 -- who voted for the crime bill with
about the same amount of prevention money in it when it passed as it
has today.  Now I hear them say, "Well, there's just too much
prevention money here.  We're doing too much in these programs to
help these kids who are in trouble."  Well, all I know is when it
passed the first time at about this same dollar amount, there were 65
Republican votes for it.  But I can tell you, they were put under a
lot of pressure.

             Now, they can figure out how to do this.  I'm not in the
Congress; I'm not a part of it.  But they can figure out how to get
this done.  They know what the elements are.  There is a majority now
in both Houses for all of the elements of this crime bill to let
special interest use parliamentary maneuvers to undermine what is
clearly the will of the majority of the American people and a
majority of the Congress on each discreet element is a bad mistake,
and I don't think the people will forget about it.

             Q    Mr. President, on the issue of the specific
complaints that the opposition made, that there was too much
money -- pork, if you will -- they claim on crime prevention and that
the ban on 19 kinds of assault weapons -- are you prepared to
compromise on those two points, the crime prevention programs and the
gun control, in order to get the more prisons, the 100,000 police,
and everything else you want?

             THE PRESIDENT:  First of all, I believe that all of
these elements can pass, and I believe that they will.  Let's wait
and see what they have to say.  There were -- let me say again --
there were 11 votes, Republican votes, for this rule today.  There
were 38 Republican votes for the assault weapons ban.  There were 65
Republican votes for the crime bill with about the same dollars'
worth of prevention programs we had.  So I don't see how, when we're
spending two-thirds of the money in this bill on prisons, police and
punishment, we can possibly walk away when we've got the toughest
punishment that any federal bill ever had -- three strikes and you're
out, tougher penalties for serious offenders, tougher penalties for
serious juvenile offenders -- how we can walk away from the
prevention programs when the police have told us that that's what we
have to do.

             Q    What's your response to those who will say that
this is an enormous personal defeat for you?

             THE PRESIDENT:   I can say that I worked my heart out on
it and I did everything I could.  And on this day, the NRA and the
Republican leadership had their way.  The American people have to
decide whether they think this is about which politicians are winning
and losing in Washington, or about kids like James Darby and Polly
Klaas who are still alive.

             I believe the American people will not like viewing this
as some sort of political circus up here.  I'm on their side, and I
think we better see who's on what side.  That is the only thing that
matters, what happens to the American people.

             Did I lose tonight?  You bet I did in the sense that I
wanted it to pass.  But what happens to me is not important.  If
everybody in America had the security I had, we wouldn't need a crime
bill.

             Look at -- what happens to me is not -- what matters is
all these kids that are going to be out on the street tonight that
could just get shot.  That's what's important.  And I think that, in
the end, if that is felt in the heart of the members of the House,
we'll still get this crime bill.

             Thank you.

                                 END6:20 P.M. EDT