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\ y\ ^ S. Hrg. 103-1081 DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE OVERSIGHT \ Y 4. J B9/2; S. HRG. 103-1081 I Depirtnent of Justice aversijbt/ S ^f^ BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED THIRD CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE JULY 28, 1994 Serial No. J-103-65 Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary' U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 23-475CC WASHINGTON : 1996 ForsalebytheU.S.GovernmentPrintingOffice SuperintendentofDocuments,CongressionalSalesOffice,Washington,DC 20402 ISBN 0-16-052515-2 '\** Aie ^\ r\^ 1 ^ A S. Hrg. 103-1081 DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE OVERSIGHT Y 4. J B9/2: S. HRG. 103-1081 , Depirtnent of Justice Oversijitt; S N^O BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIAKY UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED THIRD CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE JULY 28, 1994 Serial No. J-103-65 Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary- U.. May 23 U.S. GOVERNME^^^ PRINTING OFFICE 23-475CC WASHINGTON : 1996 ForsalebytheU.S.GovernmentPrintingOffice SuperintendentofDocuments,CongressionalSalesOffice.Washington,DC 20402 ISBN 0-16-052515-2 COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY JOSEPH R. BIDEN, Jr., Delaware, Chairman EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah HOWARD M. METZENBAUM, Ohio STROM THURMOND, South CaroUna DENNIS DeCONCINI, Arizona ALAN K. SIMPSON, Wyoming PATRICKJ. LEAHY, Vermont CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa HOWELL HEFLIN, Alabama ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania PAUL SIMON, IlUnois HANK BROWN, Colorado HERBERT KOHL, Wisconsin WILLIAM S. COHEN, Maine DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California LARRY PRESSLER, South Dakota CAROL MOSELEY-BRAUN, Illinois Cynthia C. Hogan, ChiefCounsel CATHERihfE M. Russell, StaffDirector Mark R. Disler, Minority StaffDirector Sharon Prost, Minority ChiefCounsel (II) CONTENTS STATEMENTS OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS Page Biden, Hon. Joseph R.,Jr., U.S. Senatorfromthe State ofDelaware 1 Hatch, Hon. Orrin G., U.S. Senatorfrom the StateofUtah 3 Kohl, Hon. Herb, U.S. Senatorfrom the StateofWisconsin 19 Moseley-Braun, Hon. Carol, U.S. Senatorfrom the StateofIllinois 28 Grassley, Hon. Charles E., U.S. Senatorfrom the State ofIowa 32 Feinstein, Hon. Dianne, U.S. Senatorfrom the StateofCalifornia 35 Cohen, Hon. William S., U.S. Senatorfrom the State ofMaine 40 Specter, Hon. Arlen, U.S. Senatorfromthe State ofPennsylvania 49 Simpson, Hon. Alan, U.S. Senatorfromthe StateofWyoming 89 Brown, Hon. Hank, U.S. Senatorfrom the StateofColorado 94 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WITNESSES StatementofJanetReno,AttorneyGeneral, U.S. DepartmentofJustice 5 ALPHABETICAL LIST AND MATERIAL SUBMITTED Biden, Hon. Joseph R.,Jr.: Testimony 1 Anexcerptfrom the policingbill 14 Reno,Janet: Testimony 5 Prepared statement 98 Specter, Hon. Arlen: Testimony 49 LettertoAttorney General Reno andvarious otherattachments 50 Letter from Robert B. Fiske, Jr., U.S. Department of Justice, to SenatorArlen Specter 83 APPENDIX Questions and Answers Questions toAttorney GeneradJanetReno from Senators: Biden 103 Simon 103 Leahy 113 Simpson 118 Brown 121 DeConcini 124 (HI) DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE OVERSIGHT THURSDAY, JULY 28, 1994 U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Washington, DC. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:05 p.m., in room SD-226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (chairman ofthe committee), presiding. Also present: Senators DeConcini, Kohl, Feinstein, Moseley- Braun, Hatch, Thurmond, Simpson, Grassley, Specter, Brown, and Cohen. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOSEPH R. BmEN, JR.,AU.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF DELAWARE The Chairman. The hearing will come to order. To use the phrase twice today, I thank my colleagues for allowing, as we say in this business, a point of personal privilege. I wanted these two young men from the State of Delaware and one intern of mine to have the honor of meeting the Attorney General. The two young men, Brian and Michael, who are here are from my State and, as all ofus, we have people from Boy's Nation. I have got a feeling, the way they both sat in my chair to have their pictures taken, that they were very comfortable. Fellows, just make sure you don't run against me. I know you are both senators now in Boy's Nation; that is their official title, they are senators. But give me a chance to gracefully leave before you decide to run. General thank you for being so gracious to meet my colleagues from my State. Today, the committee is fortunate indeed, and particularly today, to have with us the Attorney General of the United States, Janet Reno, for the purpose of conducting our regular oversight hearing on the Department ofJustice. I want to say to the Republican staff, as well as the Democratic staff, and to your staff, this is a very important hearing, but all three staffs have been incredibly occupied with other matters, such as the crime bill, the Supreme Court nom- ination—, and this hearing. So I a—ppreciate. General, your accommo- dating I will speak for myself my schedule and the schedule of this committee, and I appreciate Senator Hatch's indulgence of the way we have had to change the hearing date at least once. Because the Attorney General's time is limited, we will have no opening statements, but before we start I have a few words about the purpose ofthe hearing. Under Attorney General Reno, I believe the Justice Department and this committee have worked to form a positive working relationship. Regular and serious oversight of (1) the Justice Department is an essential part ofthe working relationship between this committee and the department, and an important responsibility ofthis committee. In the period since you—became Attorney G—reneral, some time more than a year ago now it is hard to believe ^we have achieved important goals, I think, working together, no more important one, in my view, than what we accomplished in the conference today. We passed the Brady bill, a major victory for those wanting to slow down the wanton spread of firearms in our society. Last No- vember, the Senate passed the crime bill, and I have just returned with my colleagues from the House-Senate conference where we put the finishing touches on the final crime bill that will be pre- sented to both Houses shortly. I am confident that we will soon have a crime bill for the President's signature, a bill that meets our joint goals of being tough and smart by focusing on law enforcement and prevention at the sametime. In this very important bill, we have the most massive Federal commitment ever to the women and men of State and local law enforcement, fulfilling the President's goal of 100,000 new police offi- cers. We have a vast new prison program to help States keep their most violent and dangerous offenders behind bars, and we have a package of prevention programs that I know my colleague from Utah and others don't like particularly, but a lot ofthe police orga- nizations and I like them a great deal, that will provide tens of thousands ofyoung people with the skills and hopefully the expec- tation and hope they need to stay clear ofthe temptations ofgangs and drugs. We have a sweeping assault on the tragic problem of violence against women, the most far-reaching Federal legislation ever tar- geted, thanks to the incredible help of the Senator from Utah. We disagreed on a lot ofthings in the legislation, but that is not some- thing we disagreed on. Senator Hatch. We agree on that, I will tell you. The Chairman. It could not have passed without the Senator's cosponsorship. Senator Hatch. Thank you. The Chairman. I am sure he would rather be able to vote for that alone in the bill and not the whole bill, but I will say publicly that I know that —notwithstanding the fact he may vote again—st the conference report I hope there is time to reconsider that ^that does not reflect anything but his enthusiasm for what he worked so hard on, the violence against women legislation. This new legislation brings a total of $30 billion to bear on the problem of crime and all its aspects over the next 6 years. At the sametime, it imposes significant new responsibilities on you, Gren- eral, and your department. Spending this money and implementing that many initiatives and programs prescribed in this bill is an awesome task. I look forward to working with you in the coming months to implement the promise of the crime bill that we have just completed in conference and hopefully we will pass shortly. I will ask you today, Greneral, to talk with me about the department's plans in this regard. I will also ask you about issues ofcon- tinuing concern and interest to me, including the Office of Profes- sional Responsibility and its review of allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. Attorney General Reno, I know that my colleagues and I have many questions for you today. I look forward to discussing your views on issues facing your department, and I thank you and welcome you. I would yield now to my friend from Utah. STATEMENT OF HON. ORRIN G. HATCH, AU.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF UTAH Senator Hatch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I congratulate you and you. General Reno, for a crime bill that was passed today. Even though I do disagree with some ofit, I agree with quite a bit ofit as well. I want to welcome you. Attorney General Reno, to the committee. As you know, what you do at Justice affects my State and every other State in the Union, and the citizens of Utah are greatly af- fected by the decisions that are made there, including law enforcement decisions. I really believe that this administration has talked tough on crime, but has failed to deliver tough, hard-nosed policies that the American people expect and deserve. For instance, the administration has allowed the number of Federal law enforcement agents and prosecutors to decrease. It has introduced a budget for fiscal year 1995 that cut prison construction, cut aid to State and local law enforcement, and cut funding for drug interdictions. It reversed an existing policy that required prosecutors to charge violent crimi- nals with the most serious provable offense. This administration sided with a convicted child pomographer in litigation to narrow the scope of Federal child pornography laws, which has caused a lot ofangst up here on Capitol Hill. It searched long and hard for a method to gut the death penalty under what we consider to be the false labeUng of the so-called Racial Justice act, or any facsimile thereof, and advocated the waste ofbillions of dollars of scarce crime-fighting resources on social spending boon- doggles, while failing to offer a comprehensive crime bill ofits own. I ^so believe, and this is very important to me and I think a lot ofother Senators up here, that the administration has dropped the ball on religious liberty. In what I believe is the administration's first interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration act, in Christian v. Crystal Evangelical Free Church the administration adopted a crabbed reading of that historic civil rights legislation. If that interpretation of the administration is adopted by the courts, then the Religious Freedom Restoration act will be gutted, and people all over this country are going to be upset and certainly I am going to be upset. I think you need to change the thrust of the Justice Department there. I believe this administration has turned the clock back on civil rights, in a sense, by an increasing mis-reUance on statistics and on proportionality and equal results asIalmoeokasfuorrewaorfdeqtuoadliospcpuosrstiunngittyh.ese matters, and let me j.ust. adjjd one other point. The committee moved expeditiously during this time that President Clinton has been in office onjudicial nominees. We on the Republican side have waived committee rules frequently to accommodate this administration and our chairman, as I want to do. Indeed, had this side not waived the rules 24 times last No- vember alone, this administration would have had a mere 16 judges confirmed and would have had 12 fewer confirmed judges, in total, to date. Notwithstanding the consideration of a Supreme Court nominee and a heavy committee schedule in June, I think we are in very good shape at this point, although it has taken diligent efforts by both staffs, and I want to compliment Senator Biden's staff as well as the staffon the side ofthe minority. But I will repeat a warning to the Clinton administration that I often heard Chairman Biden make to Presidents Reagan and Bush and to their administrations. Don't dump 20, 30, or 40 nominees on the committee in a short period and expect the committee to process them so quickly. I had a wonderful conversation with the President a week ago for about 20 minutes and I mentioned this to him and he said they have maybe 60 to send up here. I give him credit for that, and that is certainly a much better record than what we had in the prior administration in getting these judgeships filled, but there is no way we can do it. On the other hand, we will do our best. I might add that Chairman Biden issued that warning while he had twice the resources ofthe Republican side. We do have an obli- gation as the loyal opposition to review carefully nominees to life- time judicial positions, and we do that fairly and we intend to do it fairly, and if I ever hear that we have not, I want you to tell me because I will remedy that quickly. The Constitution does give the advise and consent duty to the Senate, and we will continue to move as expeditiously as we can consistent with that duty. We have asked for some help with regard to detailees that would really help you, and if you can help us there, that will be a great help to us. We want bipartisan people who are willing to work hard to get these judges through for you. We lost our committee inves- tigator, and that has put us back a little bit, too, but we will do our best for you on thosejudges. Personally, General Reno, I have a great deal of respect for you, and for a number of the others with whom I work regularly down at the Justice Department. So I hope we can work on some ofthese problems together. I really am concerned about this Religious Free- dom Restoration act. I really believe that that is a ridiculous posi- tion that the administration has taken in that Christian case and I hope you can get that changed. Thank you. The Chairman. Thank you very much. Senator. Let me say for my co—lleagues that at the last executive mee—ting we had, I indi- cated ^this is a purely housekeeping matter ^that we would ask questions based on the first-come rule, the first to arrive, and we will do that. After the General's statement, we will have rounds of questions for 10 minutes. Senator Grassley. I don't have an opening statement, but a clarification ofwhat youjust said. The Chairman. Sure. Senator Grassley. It is a perfectly good way to proceed. I have no problem with it, just clarification because there are variations