Unable to convert ARMS_EXT: [ATTACH.D23]ARMS24840607J.136 to ASCII,
The following is a HEX DUMP:
FF575043CB240000010A000100000000FBFF05003200D50100000600080000004200000007002F
0000004AOOOOOOOF0002010000790000000C005A0000007B01000018007C007800000054696D65
73204E657720526F6D616E2020285454290053796D626F6C202028 54542900417269616C202028
545429000000000000000000000000000000000000000000010101F4014300F41A5C121A090000
001020508E001C3651110310F40150000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001600010101F4016100
aIJagement System
Hex-Dump Conversion
June 11, 1999
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
FROM: Bruce Reed
Elena Kagan
SUBJECT: DPC Weekly Report
1. Guns -- Crime Gun Report on Youths Age 18-20: At a Monday event with the
U.S. Conference of Mayors, the Vice President will release a joint Treasury-Justice Department
report on gun crime in the age group of 18-20. This age group leads all others in using guns in
homicides and non-lethal crimes, including assault, rape, and robbery. Among the key findings
of the report are:
(1) Eighteen, nineteen and twenty year-olds ranked first, second, and third in the number of gun
homicides committed in 1997. Youths iQ this age group committed 23.5 percent of all gun
homicides nationwide.
(2) For non-lethal violent crimes, 18 to 20 year-old offenders were more likely to use a firearm
than offenders in the other age groups.
(3) Of crime guns recovered and traced by law enforcement officials in 27 cities, more crime
guns were possessed by 19 year-olds than any other age. Crime guns possessed by 18
year-olds ranked second.
(4) Crime guns recovered by law enforcement from 18 to 20 year-olds are mostly handguns,
especially semiautomatic pistols.
The report confirms that the high rate of crime in the 18-20 age group is linked to excessively
easy access to firearms. To address this, your gun legislation contains provisions to ban
handgun, assault rifle, and large capacity clip possession and transfer to youths under age 21, and
measures to crack down on illegal gun trafficking and straw purchasers by toughening penalties
on gun traffickers and limiting handgun sales to one per month.
2. Guns -- Brady Report: Early next week, the Justice Department will release a
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) report showing that under interim Brady (3/94-11/98), Brady
background checks stopped over 312,000 prohibited purchasers from buying handguns. Of this
total, two-thirds (207,000) of the individuals were barred for felony convictions or indictments.
In addition, since the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) took effect in
Hex-Dump Conversion
late 11198, the FBI has blocked another 45,400 gun sales (both long guns and handguns) of the
2.21 million background checks it conducted. While we do not have the total number of gun
sales rejected by states that run their own background check systems, BJS reports that states
conducted roughly the same number of checks as the FBI (2.22 million). States generally have
slightly higher rejection rates than the FBI. We expect to announce the updated Brady number
closely timed with the House vote on gun and juvenile crime legislation set for next Tuesday.
3. Crime -- COPS: On Thursday, the Senate Commerce, Justice, State appropriations
full committee voted out a bill which would zero out the COPS Program. The Senate bill funds
the Administration's request of $350 million for law enforcement technology included in our
COPS initiative, but would transfer the funds to Office of Justice Programs and shut down the
COPS office entirely. Administration officials will continue to amplify our opposition to the
elimination of the COPS program during this weekend's meeting at the U.S. Conference of
Mayors. As you know, the Mayors have been strong backers of the program and support its
extension and our 21 st Century Policing Initiative. The House appropriations committee has
not yet acted on Commerce, Justice, State bill.
4. Welfare - Two Parent Participation: As you may recall, in late December we
announced that all states met the 25 percent participation rates required for all families in
T ANF's first year, FY 1997; however, about half of the 39 states who were required to report for
this early period did not make the tougher 75 percent work rate required for two parent families.
HHS has now sent letters to states advising them of the amount of the penalty and giving them
the option to accept the penalty, submit a plan showing how they will achieve the 1997 target by
a future date, or file an appeal. For most states except California, the'penalties, if imposed, will
be very small (ranging from $224 in Alabama to $223,000 in Washington) because the amount of
the penalty is adjusted for the share of the state's caseload consisting of two-parents and for the
amount by which the state missed the participation rate target. The penalty for California could
be $4.5 million - a large amount, but still less than one percent of the state's 1997 T ANF grant --
because the state has a high proportion of two-parent cases and missed the target by a large
amount. While a few states are accepting minimal penalties, most are submitting corrective
action plans outlining how they will revise their programs to come into compliance. We expect
to have participation rates for FY 1998 later this summer.
5. Welfare - Civil Rights Guidance: We and the counsel's office are currently
reviewing the final version of civil rights guidance to be sent to state welfare agencies and other
interested parties. This guidance -- intended for use by welfare caseworkers and other staff --
explains the civil rights laws that apply to federally funded programs and to the workplace, using
clear language and numerous practical examples. As you may recall, civil rights laws apply to
T ANF programs as they do to any other federally assisted programs, and they apply to employees
on T ANF just as they do to any other employees. This guidance, prepared by HHS with
assistance from the Departments of Justice, Labor, Education, and Agriculture, will be
distributed shortly.
Hex-Dump Conversion
6. Education - Desegregation in Louisiana: The Justice Department's Civil Rights
Division is involved in negotiations over proposed expansions of predominantly
Africa-American charter schools in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana. East Baton Rouge is a 56,000
student school district under a longstanding desegregation case, and two thirds of the district's
students are African-American. Last week, the East Baton Rouge School District asked the
Justice Department to sign on to ajoint motion requesting the Court to approve expansions at
each school -- currently enrolling just under 100 students each -- by one additional grade next
year. The Justice Department has previously expressed concerns about the impact of the
proposed expansions on efforts to desegregate other schools in the district and on the district's
ability to comply with the desegregation decree, but has made clear that they are open to
supporting the expansions if they receive information from the school district that addresses their
concerns. The information requested by the Justice Department --which has not yet been
supplied -- includes information on the projected racial composition of the schools' student
population, the impact of the schools on the racial composition of other schools from which
students are drawn, assurances that the location and size of the schools will not be changed
without Court approval, and a determination by the school board that the expansions will not
impede the ability of the district to comply with the consent decree. While the Justice
Department is open to supporting the expansions, their specific concerns appear to be that that
the charter school expansions might 1) draw minority students from predominantly white schools
(or perhaps white students from predominantly minority schools), thereby causing a few schools
that are now marginally desegregated to become one-race schools, or 2) take away funding from
the school district that would impede its ability to make the improvements in one-race schools
that are required under the consent decree (e.g., wiring schools, fixing the school building).
Amidst rumors in East Baton Rouge that the Justice Department is going to oppose the
expansions, Clint Bolick and the Institute of Justice may be preparing to file a lawsuit on behalf
of the two charter schools. Meanwhile, a private foundation may also step in to support the new
grades at these schools as private schools, given concerns that their expansion as public schools
may not be approved.
Bill Lee is recused from the case because of his prior involvement with the NAACP legal defense
fund, which is also a party to the consent decree. But after Clint Bolick wrote a Wall Street
Journal editorial suggesting that Bill Lee not be confirmed because of this and other charter
school cases, Senator Landrieux requested and received briefings on this case from the Justice
Department. This week, Education Department Assistant Secretary Norma Cantu was asked by
a House Oversight committee to testify on charter schools and desegregation at a June 22 hearing
that will also deal with high-stakes testing issues.
7. Education - Troops to Teachers: The Defense authorization bill passed by the
Senate includes a provision that would continue the Troops to Teachers program, however the
provision differs from your ESEA proposal in a few important ways. Most importantly, the
Defense bill does not include the "transition to teaching" provisions, which would allow the
Hex-Dump Conversion
Troops to Teachers model to be expanded to other mid-career professionals interested in teaching
high-need subjects in high-poverty schools. A SAP noting our objections, and suggest
modifications to address them, is currently being drafted for Defense conferees.
In addition, next week Congressmen Roemer and Davis will be introducing a Troops to Teachers
bill which is essentially the same as the provision in your ESEA proposa\.
8. Education - School Uniforms: You requested an update on the number of school
districts adopting school unifonn policies. The Department of Education has not collected new
data on this practice since July 1998. At that time, you announced that the Department of
Education estimated that 3% of all public schools had mandatory school uniform policies --
including New York City, Dade County (Miami), San Antonio, Houston, Chicago, Boston and
Albuquerque. Since the Department's last report, the adoption of school uniforms has been
proposed statewide in Massachusetts, and all principals in DC public schools are considering
adopting a mandatory school uniform policy. Education is currently updating this data and will
have a new report on the pace of adoption of school unifonn policies by XX date.
9. Education -- Republican Teacher Empowerment Act/Class Size: Republicans
have introduced a teacher quality bill (McKeon) that has some similarities to your Title II
(teacher quality) proposal of ESEA, particularly a focus on sustained, high-quality professional
development and an effort to improve alternative routes to teacher certification. However, the
bill's attempt to address class size reduction is problematic. The McKeon bill does not provide a
separate funding stream for class size reduction, does not target the reduction toward the early
grades, and would allow districts to opt out of class size reduction activities for a multitude of
reasons (e.g., lack offacilities or qualified teachers) and use the funds for other purposes. The
bill's language also appears to preclude federal funding for the National Board for Teacher
Certification. The current expectation is that the bill will be marked up in committee before the
end of the month. On Friday, Education staff will meet with Congressional staff (Goodling,
McKeon, Clay, Martinez) to try and work out differences on the bill. Education staff will stress
that in order for us to support this bill, it must include continuation of the bipartisan class size
program and support for the national board for teacher certification.
10. Education - Social Promotion in Los Angeles: On Monday, officials of the L.A.
Unified School District unveiled their plan to end social promotion and launch intervention
programs for 139,000 students in danger of being held back in June 2000. The $71 million
initiative will use results of the Stanford 9 and teacher's assessments to identify and enroll tens of
thousands of students .in voluntary summer school, after school and weekend classes. Generally,
all students in grades 2,3,4,5, and 8 (with appropriate exceptions for LEP and disabled students)
will be expected to meet minimum standards in reading, language arts and math. Community
response has been extremely positive, with parents overwhelmingly in favor of the effort, and
7,000 teachers applying to provide the special instruction.
Hex-Dump Conversion
11. BBA Provider Update - Experts Testify in front of Finance Committee: On
Thursday, the three Medicare policy payment advisors to the Congress (CBO, GAO, and the
Medicare Payment Advisory Commission) testified before the Senate Finance Committee on
their views about the validity of health care provider complaints about the Balanced Budget Act
of 1997. Notably, all three concluded that there was insufficient evidence that the BBA had
caused significant access and quality problems and that moves to repeal or moderate the law
would be premature. While acknowledging the Medicare baseline had declined significantly, they
uniformly attributed the vast majority of that decline to success in curbing fraud and abuse, a
better than expected economy with lower inflation, and some payment cycle issues that were
short term in nature. The one exception appeared to be concerns about the physical therapy cap
policy (which we opposed) that Chairman Thomas (R-CA) had inserted in the legislation at the
end of the conference. This testimony will somewhat reduce the pressure to put significant BBA
giveback provisions in your Medicare reform initiative. However, recognizing the serious
concerns that are continuing to be raised by providers, we still are reviewing options that will
send signals to this community that we want to work with them to moderate any excessive
burdens on their ability to provide affordable, accessible, quality care to Medicare beneficiaries.
12. Update on Privacy Legislation: Next Tuesday, Senate Labor Committee Chair
Jeffords is scheduled to hold a markup on the privacy legislation. While there are a number of
issues that remain unresolved, the two major provisions that continue to be the major barrier to
progress are the enforcement mechanism and protection provisions for minors. As has been the
case in many health care bills this year, the issue that frequently stands in the way of bipartisan
consensus is that related to enforcement and the ability to obtain remedies for those harmed by
violators of the legislation. The current language raises the privacy act standard to willful and
intentional rather than willful or intentional; moreover, it appears that the Republicans are
pressuring Senator Jeffords to eliminate punitive awards and limit non-economic awards to
$50,000. These provisions clearly weaken privacy protections and would be viewed by all the
Democrats to be unacceptable. The minors' issue has been raised by both the pro-choice and
pro-life communities because they have concerns about how this provision will impact on
teenagers' ability to access abortion services without parental consent. Both sides claim they
want to maintain the status quo, but neither believes the current language achieves that end.
Senator Jeffords is attempting to work out a compromise between the women's groups and the
Catholic Health Association; ifhe does before Tuesday, it appears likely that he will mark-up the
legislation and see ifhe can get further compromises on enforcement at the mark-up and at later
stages in the process. We are currently reviewing compromise positions on the enforcement issue
to prepare for the eventual negotiations that we must have with the Republican leadership on this
Issue.
==================== ATTACHMENT 1 ====================
ATT CREATION TIME/DATE: 0 00:00:00.00
TEXT:
Unable to convert ARMS_EXT: [ATTACH.D23]ARMS24840607J.136 to ASCII,
The following is a HEX DUMP:
FF575043CB240000010A000100000000FBFF05003200D50100000600080000004200000007002F
0000004AOOOOOOOF0002010000790000000C005A0000007B01000018007C007800000054696D65
73204E657720526F6D616E2020285454290053796D626F6C202028 54542900417269616C202028
545429000000000000000000000000000000000000000000010101F4014300F41A5C121A090000
001020508E001C3651110310F40150000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001600010101F4016100
aIJagement System
Hex-Dump Conversion
June 11, 1999
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
FROM: Bruce Reed
Elena Kagan
SUBJECT: DPC Weekly Report
1. Guns -- Crime Gun Report on Youths Age 18-20: At a Monday event with the
U.S. Conference of Mayors, the Vice President will release a joint Treasury-Justice Department
report on gun crime in the age group of 18-20. This age group leads all others in using guns in
homicides and non-lethal crimes, including assault, rape, and robbery. Among the key findings
of the report are:
(1) Eighteen, nineteen and twenty year-olds ranked first, second, and third in the number of gun
homicides committed in 1997. Youths iQ this age group committed 23.5 percent of all gun
homicides nationwide.
(2) For non-lethal violent crimes, 18 to 20 year-old offenders were more likely to use a firearm
than offenders in the other age groups.
(3) Of crime guns recovered and traced by law enforcement officials in 27 cities, more crime
guns were possessed by 19 year-olds than any other age. Crime guns possessed by 18
year-olds ranked second.
(4) Crime guns recovered by law enforcement from 18 to 20 year-olds are mostly handguns,
especially semiautomatic pistols.
The report confirms that the high rate of crime in the 18-20 age group is linked to excessively
easy access to firearms. To address this, your gun legislation contains provisions to ban
handgun, assault rifle, and large capacity clip possession and transfer to youths under age 21, and
measures to crack down on illegal gun trafficking and straw purchasers by toughening penalties
on gun traffickers and limiting handgun sales to one per month.
2. Guns -- Brady Report: Early next week, the Justice Department will release a
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) report showing that under interim Brady (3/94-11/98), Brady
background checks stopped over 312,000 prohibited purchasers from buying handguns. Of this
total, two-thirds (207,000) of the individuals were barred for felony convictions or indictments.
In addition, since the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) took effect in
Hex-Dump Conversion
late 11198, the FBI has blocked another 45,400 gun sales (both long guns and handguns) of the
2.21 million background checks it conducted. While we do not have the total number of gun
sales rejected by states that run their own background check systems, BJS reports that states
conducted roughly the same number of checks as the FBI (2.22 million). States generally have
slightly higher rejection rates than the FBI. We expect to announce the updated Brady number
closely timed with the House vote on gun and juvenile crime legislation set for next Tuesday.
3. Crime -- COPS: On Thursday, the Senate Commerce, Justice, State appropriations
full committee voted out a bill which would zero out the COPS Program. The Senate bill funds
the Administration's request of $350 million for law enforcement technology included in our
COPS initiative, but would transfer the funds to Office of Justice Programs and shut down the
COPS office entirely. Administration officials will continue to amplify our opposition to the
elimination of the COPS program during this weekend's meeting at the U.S. Conference of
Mayors. As you know, the Mayors have been strong backers of the program and support its
extension and our 21 st Century Policing Initiative. The House appropriations committee has
not yet acted on Commerce, Justice, State bill.
4. Welfare - Two Parent Participation: As you may recall, in late December we
announced that all states met the 25 percent participation rates required for all families in
T ANF's first year, FY 1997; however, about half of the 39 states who were required to report for
this early period did not make the tougher 75 percent work rate required for two parent families.
HHS has now sent letters to states advising them of the amount of the penalty and giving them
the option to accept the penalty, submit a plan showing how they will achieve the 1997 target by
a future date, or file an appeal. For most states except California, the'penalties, if imposed, will
be very small (ranging from $224 in Alabama to $223,000 in Washington) because the amount of
the penalty is adjusted for the share of the state's caseload consisting of two-parents and for the
amount by which the state missed the participation rate target. The penalty for California could
be $4.5 million - a large amount, but still less than one percent of the state's 1997 T ANF grant --
because the state has a high proportion of two-parent cases and missed the target by a large
amount. While a few states are accepting minimal penalties, most are submitting corrective
action plans outlining how they will revise their programs to come into compliance. We expect
to have participation rates for FY 1998 later this summer.
5. Welfare - Civil Rights Guidance: We and the counsel's office are currently
reviewing the final version of civil rights guidance to be sent to state welfare agencies and other
interested parties. This guidance -- intended for use by welfare caseworkers and other staff --
explains the civil rights laws that apply to federally funded programs and to the workplace, using
clear language and numerous practical examples. As you may recall, civil rights laws apply to
T ANF programs as they do to any other federally assisted programs, and they apply to employees
on T ANF just as they do to any other employees. This guidance, prepared by HHS with
assistance from the Departments of Justice, Labor, Education, and Agriculture, will be
distributed shortly.
Hex-Dump Conversion
6. Education - Desegregation in Louisiana: The Justice Department's Civil Rights
Division is involved in negotiations over proposed expansions of predominantly
Africa-American charter schools in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana. East Baton Rouge is a 56,000
student school district under a longstanding desegregation case, and two thirds of the district's
students are African-American. Last week, the East Baton Rouge School District asked the
Justice Department to sign on to ajoint motion requesting the Court to approve expansions at
each school -- currently enrolling just under 100 students each -- by one additional grade next
year. The Justice Department has previously expressed concerns about the impact of the
proposed expansions on efforts to desegregate other schools in the district and on the district's
ability to comply with the desegregation decree, but has made clear that they are open to
supporting the expansions if they receive information from the school district that addresses their
concerns. The information requested by the Justice Department --which has not yet been
supplied -- includes information on the projected racial composition of the schools' student
population, the impact of the schools on the racial composition of other schools from which
students are drawn, assurances that the location and size of the schools will not be changed
without Court approval, and a determination by the school board that the expansions will not
impede the ability of the district to comply with the consent decree. While the Justice
Department is open to supporting the expansions, their specific concerns appear to be that that
the charter school expansions might 1) draw minority students from predominantly white schools
(or perhaps white students from predominantly minority schools), thereby causing a few schools
that are now marginally desegregated to become one-race schools, or 2) take away funding from
the school district that would impede its ability to make the improvements in one-race schools
that are required under the consent decree (e.g., wiring schools, fixing the school building).
Amidst rumors in East Baton Rouge that the Justice Department is going to oppose the
expansions, Clint Bolick and the Institute of Justice may be preparing to file a lawsuit on behalf
of the two charter schools. Meanwhile, a private foundation may also step in to support the new
grades at these schools as private schools, given concerns that their expansion as public schools
may not be approved.
Bill Lee is recused from the case because of his prior involvement with the NAACP legal defense
fund, which is also a party to the consent decree. But after Clint Bolick wrote a Wall Street
Journal editorial suggesting that Bill Lee not be confirmed because of this and other charter
school cases, Senator Landrieux requested and received briefings on this case from the Justice
Department. This week, Education Department Assistant Secretary Norma Cantu was asked by
a House Oversight committee to testify on charter schools and desegregation at a June 22 hearing
that will also deal with high-stakes testing issues.
7. Education - Troops to Teachers: The Defense authorization bill passed by the
Senate includes a provision that would continue the Troops to Teachers program, however the
provision differs from your ESEA proposal in a few important ways. Most importantly, the
Defense bill does not include the "transition to teaching" provisions, which would allow the
Hex-Dump Conversion
Troops to Teachers model to be expanded to other mid-career professionals interested in teaching
high-need subjects in high-poverty schools. A SAP noting our objections, and suggest
modifications to address them, is currently being drafted for Defense conferees.
In addition, next week Congressmen Roemer and Davis will be introducing a Troops to Teachers
bill which is essentially the same as the provision in your ESEA proposa\.
8. Education - School Uniforms: You requested an update on the number of school
districts adopting school unifonn policies. The Department of Education has not collected new
data on this practice since July 1998. At that time, you announced that the Department of
Education estimated that 3% of all public schools had mandatory school uniform policies --
including New York City, Dade County (Miami), San Antonio, Houston, Chicago, Boston and
Albuquerque. Since the Department's last report, the adoption of school uniforms has been
proposed statewide in Massachusetts, and all principals in DC public schools are considering
adopting a mandatory school uniform policy. Education is currently updating this data and will
have a new report on the pace of adoption of school unifonn policies by XX date.
9. Education -- Republican Teacher Empowerment Act/Class Size: Republicans
have introduced a teacher quality bill (McKeon) that has some similarities to your Title II
(teacher quality) proposal of ESEA, particularly a focus on sustained, high-quality professional
development and an effort to improve alternative routes to teacher certification. However, the
bill's attempt to address class size reduction is problematic. The McKeon bill does not provide a
separate funding stream for class size reduction, does not target the reduction toward the early
grades, and would allow districts to opt out of class size reduction activities for a multitude of
reasons (e.g., lack offacilities or qualified teachers) and use the funds for other purposes. The
bill's language also appears to preclude federal funding for the National Board for Teacher
Certification. The current expectation is that the bill will be marked up in committee before the
end of the month. On Friday, Education staff will meet with Congressional staff (Goodling,
McKeon, Clay, Martinez) to try and work out differences on the bill. Education staff will stress
that in order for us to support this bill, it must include continuation of the bipartisan class size
program and support for the national board for teacher certification.
10. Education - Social Promotion in Los Angeles: On Monday, officials of the L.A.
Unified School District unveiled their plan to end social promotion and launch intervention
programs for 139,000 students in danger of being held back in June 2000. The $71 million
initiative will use results of the Stanford 9 and teacher's assessments to identify and enroll tens of
thousands of students .in voluntary summer school, after school and weekend classes. Generally,
all students in grades 2,3,4,5, and 8 (with appropriate exceptions for LEP and disabled students)
will be expected to meet minimum standards in reading, language arts and math. Community
response has been extremely positive, with parents overwhelmingly in favor of the effort, and
7,000 teachers applying to provide the special instruction.
Hex-Dump Conversion
11. BBA Provider Update - Experts Testify in front of Finance Committee: On
Thursday, the three Medicare policy payment advisors to the Congress (CBO, GAO, and the
Medicare Payment Advisory Commission) testified before the Senate Finance Committee on
their views about the validity of health care provider complaints about the Balanced Budget Act
of 1997. Notably, all three concluded that there was insufficient evidence that the BBA had
caused significant access and quality problems and that moves to repeal or moderate the law
would be premature. While acknowledging the Medicare baseline had declined significantly, they
uniformly attributed the vast majority of that decline to success in curbing fraud and abuse, a
better than expected economy with lower inflation, and some payment cycle issues that were
short term in nature. The one exception appeared to be concerns about the physical therapy cap
policy (which we opposed) that Chairman Thomas (R-CA) had inserted in the legislation at the
end of the conference. This testimony will somewhat reduce the pressure to put significant BBA
giveback provisions in your Medicare reform initiative. However, recognizing the serious
concerns that are continuing to be raised by providers, we still are reviewing options that will
send signals to this community that we want to work with them to moderate any excessive
burdens on their ability to provide affordable, accessible, quality care to Medicare beneficiaries.
12. Update on Privacy Legislation: Next Tuesday, Senate Labor Committee Chair
Jeffords is scheduled to hold a markup on the privacy legislation. While there are a number of
issues that remain unresolved, the two major provisions that continue to be the major barrier to
progress are the enforcement mechanism and protection provisions for minors. As has been the
case in many health care bills this year, the issue that frequently stands in the way of bipartisan
consensus is that related to enforcement and the ability to obtain remedies for those harmed by
violators of the legislation. The current language raises the privacy act standard to willful and
intentional rather than willful or intentional; moreover, it appears that the Republicans are
pressuring Senator Jeffords to eliminate punitive awards and limit non-economic awards to
$50,000. These provisions clearly weaken privacy protections and would be viewed by all the
Democrats to be unacceptable. The minors' issue has been raised by both the pro-choice and
pro-life communities because they have concerns about how this provision will impact on
teenagers' ability to access abortion services without parental consent. Both sides claim they
want to maintain the status quo, but neither believes the current language achieves that end.
Senator Jeffords is attempting to work out a compromise between the women's groups and the
Catholic Health Association; ifhe does before Tuesday, it appears likely that he will mark-up the
legislation and see ifhe can get further compromises on enforcement at the mark-up and at later
stages in the process. We are currently reviewing compromise positions on the enforcement issue
to prepare for the eventual negotiations that we must have with the Republican leadership on this
Issue.
Unable to convert ARMS_EXT: [ATTACH.D94]ARMS24249377U.136 to ASCII,
The following is a HEX DUMP:
FF575043DF250000010A000100000000FBFF050032004102000006000800000042000000070045
0000004AOOOOOOOF00580100008FOOOOOOOC005AOOOOOOE701000018007C007800000054696D65
73204E657720526F6D616E2020285454290053796D626F6C2020285454290054696D6573204E65
7720526F6D616E20202854542900417269616C2020285454290000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000010101F4014300F41A5C121A090000001020508E001C3651110310F401500000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000001600010101F4016100F41A5C121A090000051020505BOOA20FB2
124111F40150000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000002300010101F4014300F41A5C121A09000000
1020508EOOIC3651110310F4015000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000003900010101F4014AOOE4
IB3214BC07000000001050B1008A0651110310F401500000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOQOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOQOOO
Hex-Dump Conversion
Hex-Dump Conversion
June 18, 1999
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
FROM: Bruce Reed
Elena Kagan
SUBJECT: DPC Weekly Report
2. Crime -- Juvenile Crime/Gun Bills: Today, the House voted down its gun bill on
final passage by a vote of 147-280. In the most closely watched votes, last night the House
passed the Dingell gun show amendment 218-211, and rejected the McCarthy gun show
substitute by a vote of 235-193. The House also passed additional amendments throughout
today, including provisions to: (1) ban the importation oflarge capacity ammunition clips (voice
vote); (2) require child safety locks for handguns (311-115); (3) ban juvenile possession of
semiautomatic assault weapons (354-69); (4) ban violent juveniles from owning guns as adults
(395-27); (5) allow current and former law enforcement officers to carry concealed weapons
(372-53); (6) revise background check requirements for guns redeemed at pawnshops (247-181);
and (7) allow D.C. residents to keep handguns in their homes (213-208). The House rejected an
amendment to overturn a broader D.C. law that prohibits D.C. residents from possessing
handguns. In addition, Hyde withdrew his amendment to prohibit handgun sales to youths under
age 21.
Since the overall gun bill failed, the juvenile bill passed by the House yesterday (287-139)
will proceed to conference without significant gun provisions. Before completing work on the
juvenile crime bill, the House approved a number of amendments including an IDEA amendment
allowing schools to expel disabled students for bringing weapons to school and a bipartisan
Goodling amendment on juvenile prevention. The House also passed amendments to mandate a
Surgeon General report on youth violence, and require schools and libraries to install blocking
technology on computers with Internet access. We will send forward a memo with a summary of
the bill's final provisions.
2. Health Care -- Senate passes Jeffords-Kennedy Work Incentives Legislation: On
Wednesday, the Senate unanimously voted (99 to 0) to pass the Jeffords-Kennedy Work
Incentives Improvement Act. We released a statement on your behalf praising the Senate's action
and urging the House to move promptly to schedule a vote on this legislation. Our goal remains
trying to work out an agreement to secure final passage prior to the 9th anniversary of the signing
of the ADA (July 26th). The primary roadblock will be obtaining an agreement on offsets to pay
for this legislation. Senator Kennedy is reporting that you made a commitment to help
accomplish this; we are working to develop acceptable financing mechanisms.
(This was already in the daily report on Wednesday).
Institute next week finds that families with mixed immigration status -- some family members
are citizens, others not -- are quite prevalent. According to 1998 Current Population Survey
datal 0 percent of children in the U.S. live in such mixed status households. The report
underscores that benefit and immigration policies that distinguish between citizens and
non-citizens can affect individuals living in such families. For example, a citizen child living
with immigrant parents will have access to fewer food stamps because of his parents' ineligibility
and would likely have to leave the U.S. ifhis undocumented parents are deported. The report
does acknowledge that the Administration's recent clarification on the issue of public charge will
encourage families to obtain the benefits for which they are eligible.
4. Tobacco -- Funding for Federal Litigation: In the FY2000 budget we requested a
$20 million appropriation to reimburse the Department of Justice for tobacco-related litigation
expenses. However, neither the House nor the Senate bills provides for the additional funds.
Moreover, the Senate bill's report language specifically states "no funds are provided" for
tobacco litigation. While this is not a prohibition on use ofDOJ funds -- instead it is probably a
simple statement noting that the Administration's request was not included -- the language is
ambiguous enough to concern many of our allies. Several Democratic Senators are considering
offering amendments on the floor clarifying that the Department of Justice has the authority to
fund such litigation. Since we are concerned we might lose such a vote we are working with
Legislative Affairs and DOJ on developing other ways to clarify the issue.
5. Welfare -- Vice President Announces New Paternity Numbers: At the Family
Reunion Conference in Nashville on Monday, the Vice President will release new data showing
that the number of fathers establishing paternity has tripled since 1992. Nearly 1.5 million men
acknowledged paternity in 1998, an increase of 12 percent in one year alone and three times as
many as in 1992. Most of the increase is due to the success of the in-hospital paternity
establishment program included in your 1993 budget: in 1998, 40 percent of paternities (over
600,000) were established through in-hospital programs. The Vice President will describe
paternity as a critical first step in increasing fathers' involvement with their children, which was
the subject of the 1994 Family Reunion conference.
6.. Welfare - Legal Immigrants: Senators Chafee, McCain, Graham, Mack, Moynihan,
and Jeffords introduced legislation this week which would give states the option to provide
health care coverage through Medicaid and CHIP for children and pregnant women who are legal
immigrants, regardless of when they arrived in the U.S. This proposal is similar to the one week
similar to the provision in your budget. Under current law, states can provide health coverage to
children and pregnant women who entered the country before August 22, 1996 but may not use
federal funds to cover legal immigrant children who entered after that date. HHS estimates our
proposal would provide health care coverage to over 55,000 children and 23,000 pregnant
women. As part of our effort to draw attention to the Chafee-McCain bill, we issued a statement
3
Automated Records \1anagement System
Hex-Dump Conversion
food stamp and SSI eligibility for legal immigrants as proposed in your budget.
7. Welfare -- Urban Labor Markets: A new Urban Institute report confirms earlier
findings that the number of jobs created on a national level has been more than adequate to
absorb welfare recipients entering the labor market, as well as the record numbers of single
mothers. It also presents a relatively encouraging picture of how well 20 major urban labor
markets can absorb welfare recipients. The report finds that 16 of the 20 cities will be able to
absorb the number of welfare recipients entering the job market without any adverse impact on
other job seekers. In fact, 12 areas (including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, Houston,
Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Jose), low-skill employment growth will outpace the number of
welfare recipients entering the job market and the low skill unemployment rate will continue to
decline even with the influx of welfare recipients. The report points to challenges in New York
City, Baltimore, D.C., and St. Louis where job markets may have a hard time absorbing welfare
recipients. New York faces a combination of low employment growth and high numbers of
welfare recipients whereas in the other three cities the challenge is primarily related to low job
growth. On average in the 20 cities, welfare recipients entering the job market only represent
about 1 percent of low skill jobs; however, the ratio is nearly 4 percent in New York.
These findings are generally encouraging, but support the need for more job creation in
distressed areas through your New Markets Initiative. They also underscore the need for your
welfare to work transportation and housing vouchers to ensure inner city residents can take
advantage ofthe job growth throughout the metropolitan area.
8. Welfare Reform -- Father Absence in Black America: A politically diverse
coalition of black and white scholars, community and religious leaders, joined together last week
to release a compeIling report and call to action on the crisis of fatherlessness in the black
community. Seventy percent of African American children are born to unmarried mothers; up
from one-third when Senator Moynihan released his then controversial report 34 years ago.
They called for significant investments to improve the economic prospects and marriagability of
black men, federal support for community-based fatherhood programs, and changes in policies
that discourage marriage (such as the marriage penalty in the EITC). They also called on the
black leaders to give the same priority to reuniting fathers and children as they have to civil
rights, asked churches to focus on family healing, recommended that communities support
faith-based marriage education and mentoring programs, and urged the crimina~ justice system to
help reconnect fathers and children. This report is especially significant because the participants
managed to find substantial areas of common ground on both the significance of the problem and
proposed solutions, despite historical differences regarding the role of marriage and competing
theories of socioeconomic versus cultural factors in the breakdown of the black family. The
report grew out of a conference last Fall sponsored by Morehouse College, with diverse
participants including Bill Rasperry, William Julius Wilson, David Blankenhorn, and Wade
4
Automated Records Management System
Hex-Dump Conversion
Hom. Our FY 2000 initiatives address some of the recommendations in the report, including the
enhanced focus on fathers in our W elfare-to-Work reauthorization that you announced in
January. We will carefully review the recommendations to see what else we might do.
9. Welfare -- Young Child Poverty Rate: A report released last week by the National
Center for Children in Poverty highlighted positive trends in both the number and rate of young
children (under six) in poverty. Consistent with data we have highlighted before, the young child
poverty rate declined from a high of26 percent (6.4 million children) in 1993 to 22 percent (5.2
million children) in 1997. This decline came after a 52 percent increase between 1978 and
1993. With a higher proportion of poor young children with working parents and a declining
percentage receiving public assistance, the study also confirms earlier findings that families are
relying less on welfare and more on work. The report also finds: (1) without our 1993 EITC
expansion, the 1997 young child poverty rate would have been 24 percent higher; (2) key
determinants of young child poverty are single parenthood, low educational attainment, and
part-time or no employment; and (3) the gap between races continues to narrow.
10. Education -- Test Use Guide/Oversight Hearing: The Education Department's
Office for Civil Rights is continuing its work on a guide for policymakers and educators on the
use of high stakes tests. During the review process, a copy of the draft guide was leaked to the
WSJ and Chronicle of Higher Education and the guide has been the subject of several critical
op-eds alleging, among other things, that OCR is attempting to eliminate the use of SATs in
college admissions. We, along with staff from Counsel's office and Justice are reviewing the
guide and assisting the Department with strategies for combating the erroneous impression that
the guide is designed to curtail the use of high stakes tests. Rep. Hoekstra has asked Assistant
Secretary of OCR, Norma Cantu, to testify before the Oversight committee next week. She has
been asked to discuss the high-stakes testing guide, enforcement of Title IX in athletics and
bilingual education.
At the hearing, committee members may also ask Cantu about issues related to charter
schools and desegregation. The Justice Department has been asked to sign on to a motion from
the East Baton Rouge school district asking a Court to approve the expansion this fall of two
charter schools serving predominantly African-American students. The Justice Department has
expressed an openness to support the request, but it has not yet received information that it has
requested of the school district to help evaluate the impact of the proposed expansions on the
district's ability to comply with a consent decree. Meanwhile, Clint Bolick and the Institute of
Justice have become involved, suggesting that the Justice Department may oppose these
expansions, seeking to represent parents trying to start a third charter school, and arguing that
charter schools should not be subject to consent decrees and desegregation orders.
(Bruce, do we really want to include this? pjw)
5 cis '1anaaement System
Automated Recor" e
Hex-Dump Conversion
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ATTACHMENT 1 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
ATT CREATION TIME/DATE: 0 00:00:00.00
TEXT:
Unable to convert ARMS_EXT: [ATTACH.D94]ARMS24249377U.136 to ASCII,
The following is a HEX DUMP:
FF575043DF250000010A000100000000FBFF050032004102000006000800000042000000070045
0000004AOOOOOOOF00580100008FOOOOOOOC005AOOOOOOE701000018007C007800000054696D65
73204E657720526F6D616E2020285454290053796D626F6C2020285454290054696D6573204E65
7720526F6D616E20202854542900417269616C2020285454290000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000010101F4014300F41A5C121A090000001020508E001C3651110310F401500000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000001600010101F4016100F41A5C121A090000051020505BOOA20FB2
124111F40150000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000002300010101F4014300F41A5C121A09000000
1020508EOOIC3651110310F4015000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000003900010101F4014AOOE4
IB3214BC07000000001050B1008A0651110310F401500000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOQOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOQOOO
Hex-Dump Conversion
Hex-Dump Conversion
June 18, 1999
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
FROM: Bruce Reed
Elena Kagan
SUBJECT: DPC Weekly Report
2. Crime -- Juvenile Crime/Gun Bills: Today, the House voted down its gun bill on
final passage by a vote of 147-280. In the most closely watched votes, last night the House
passed the Dingell gun show amendment 218-211, and rejected the McCarthy gun show
substitute by a vote of 235-193. The House also passed additional amendments throughout
today, including provisions to: (1) ban the importation oflarge capacity ammunition clips (voice
vote); (2) require child safety locks for handguns (311-115); (3) ban juvenile possession of
semiautomatic assault weapons (354-69); (4) ban violent juveniles from owning guns as adults
(395-27); (5) allow current and former law enforcement officers to carry concealed weapons
(372-53); (6) revise background check requirements for guns redeemed at pawnshops (247-181);
and (7) allow D.C. residents to keep handguns in their homes (213-208). The House rejected an
amendment to overturn a broader D.C. law that prohibits D.C. residents from possessing
handguns. In addition, Hyde withdrew his amendment to prohibit handgun sales to youths under
age 21.
Since the overall gun bill failed, the juvenile bill passed by the House yesterday (287-139)
will proceed to conference without significant gun provisions. Before completing work on the
juvenile crime bill, the House approved a number of amendments including an IDEA amendment
allowing schools to expel disabled students for bringing weapons to school and a bipartisan
Goodling amendment on juvenile prevention. The House also passed amendments to mandate a
Surgeon General report on youth violence, and require schools and libraries to install blocking
technology on computers with Internet access. We will send forward a memo with a summary of
the bill's final provisions.
2. Health Care -- Senate passes Jeffords-Kennedy Work Incentives Legislation: On
Wednesday, the Senate unanimously voted (99 to 0) to pass the Jeffords-Kennedy Work
Incentives Improvement Act. We released a statement on your behalf praising the Senate's action
and urging the House to move promptly to schedule a vote on this legislation. Our goal remains
trying to work out an agreement to secure final passage prior to the 9th anniversary of the signing
of the ADA (July 26th). The primary roadblock will be obtaining an agreement on offsets to pay
for this legislation. Senator Kennedy is reporting that you made a commitment to help
accomplish this; we are working to develop acceptable financing mechanisms.
(This was already in the daily report on Wednesday).
Institute next week finds that families with mixed immigration status -- some family members
are citizens, others not -- are quite prevalent. According to 1998 Current Population Survey
datal 0 percent of children in the U.S. live in such mixed status households. The report
underscores that benefit and immigration policies that distinguish between citizens and
non-citizens can affect individuals living in such families. For example, a citizen child living
with immigrant parents will have access to fewer food stamps because of his parents' ineligibility
and would likely have to leave the U.S. ifhis undocumented parents are deported. The report
does acknowledge that the Administration's recent clarification on the issue of public charge will
encourage families to obtain the benefits for which they are eligible.
4. Tobacco -- Funding for Federal Litigation: In the FY2000 budget we requested a
$20 million appropriation to reimburse the Department of Justice for tobacco-related litigation
expenses. However, neither the House nor the Senate bills provides for the additional funds.
Moreover, the Senate bill's report language specifically states "no funds are provided" for
tobacco litigation. While this is not a prohibition on use ofDOJ funds -- instead it is probably a
simple statement noting that the Administration's request was not included -- the language is
ambiguous enough to concern many of our allies. Several Democratic Senators are considering
offering amendments on the floor clarifying that the Department of Justice has the authority to
fund such litigation. Since we are concerned we might lose such a vote we are working with
Legislative Affairs and DOJ on developing other ways to clarify the issue.
5. Welfare -- Vice President Announces New Paternity Numbers: At the Family
Reunion Conference in Nashville on Monday, the Vice President will release new data showing
that the number of fathers establishing paternity has tripled since 1992. Nearly 1.5 million men
acknowledged paternity in 1998, an increase of 12 percent in one year alone and three times as
many as in 1992. Most of the increase is due to the success of the in-hospital paternity
establishment program included in your 1993 budget: in 1998, 40 percent of paternities (over
600,000) were established through in-hospital programs. The Vice President will describe
paternity as a critical first step in increasing fathers' involvement with their children, which was
the subject of the 1994 Family Reunion conference.
6.. Welfare - Legal Immigrants: Senators Chafee, McCain, Graham, Mack, Moynihan,
and Jeffords introduced legislation this week which would give states the option to provide
health care coverage through Medicaid and CHIP for children and pregnant women who are legal
immigrants, regardless of when they arrived in the U.S. This proposal is similar to the one week
similar to the provision in your budget. Under current law, states can provide health coverage to
children and pregnant women who entered the country before August 22, 1996 but may not use
federal funds to cover legal immigrant children who entered after that date. HHS estimates our
proposal would provide health care coverage to over 55,000 children and 23,000 pregnant
women. As part of our effort to draw attention to the Chafee-McCain bill, we issued a statement
3
Automated Records \1anagement System
Hex-Dump Conversion
food stamp and SSI eligibility for legal immigrants as proposed in your budget.
7. Welfare -- Urban Labor Markets: A new Urban Institute report confirms earlier
findings that the number of jobs created on a national level has been more than adequate to
absorb welfare recipients entering the labor market, as well as the record numbers of single
mothers. It also presents a relatively encouraging picture of how well 20 major urban labor
markets can absorb welfare recipients. The report finds that 16 of the 20 cities will be able to
absorb the number of welfare recipients entering the job market without any adverse impact on
other job seekers. In fact, 12 areas (including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, Houston,
Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Jose), low-skill employment growth will outpace the number of
welfare recipients entering the job market and the low skill unemployment rate will continue to
decline even with the influx of welfare recipients. The report points to challenges in New York
City, Baltimore, D.C., and St. Louis where job markets may have a hard time absorbing welfare
recipients. New York faces a combination of low employment growth and high numbers of
welfare recipients whereas in the other three cities the challenge is primarily related to low job
growth. On average in the 20 cities, welfare recipients entering the job market only represent
about 1 percent of low skill jobs; however, the ratio is nearly 4 percent in New York.
These findings are generally encouraging, but support the need for more job creation in
distressed areas through your New Markets Initiative. They also underscore the need for your
welfare to work transportation and housing vouchers to ensure inner city residents can take
advantage ofthe job growth throughout the metropolitan area.
8. Welfare Reform -- Father Absence in Black America: A politically diverse
coalition of black and white scholars, community and religious leaders, joined together last week
to release a compeIling report and call to action on the crisis of fatherlessness in the black
community. Seventy percent of African American children are born to unmarried mothers; up
from one-third when Senator Moynihan released his then controversial report 34 years ago.
They called for significant investments to improve the economic prospects and marriagability of
black men, federal support for community-based fatherhood programs, and changes in policies
that discourage marriage (such as the marriage penalty in the EITC). They also called on the
black leaders to give the same priority to reuniting fathers and children as they have to civil
rights, asked churches to focus on family healing, recommended that communities support
faith-based marriage education and mentoring programs, and urged the crimina~ justice system to
help reconnect fathers and children. This report is especially significant because the participants
managed to find substantial areas of common ground on both the significance of the problem and
proposed solutions, despite historical differences regarding the role of marriage and competing
theories of socioeconomic versus cultural factors in the breakdown of the black family. The
report grew out of a conference last Fall sponsored by Morehouse College, with diverse
participants including Bill Rasperry, William Julius Wilson, David Blankenhorn, and Wade
4
Automated Records Management System
Hex-Dump Conversion
Hom. Our FY 2000 initiatives address some of the recommendations in the report, including the
enhanced focus on fathers in our W elfare-to-Work reauthorization that you announced in
January. We will carefully review the recommendations to see what else we might do.
9. Welfare -- Young Child Poverty Rate: A report released last week by the National
Center for Children in Poverty highlighted positive trends in both the number and rate of young
children (under six) in poverty. Consistent with data we have highlighted before, the young child
poverty rate declined from a high of26 percent (6.4 million children) in 1993 to 22 percent (5.2
million children) in 1997. This decline came after a 52 percent increase between 1978 and
1993. With a higher proportion of poor young children with working parents and a declining
percentage receiving public assistance, the study also confirms earlier findings that families are
relying less on welfare and more on work. The report also finds: (1) without our 1993 EITC
expansion, the 1997 young child poverty rate would have been 24 percent higher; (2) key
determinants of young child poverty are single parenthood, low educational attainment, and
part-time or no employment; and (3) the gap between races continues to narrow.
10. Education -- Test Use Guide/Oversight Hearing: The Education Department's
Office for Civil Rights is continuing its work on a guide for policymakers and educators on the
use of high stakes tests. During the review process, a copy of the draft guide was leaked to the
WSJ and Chronicle of Higher Education and the guide has been the subject of several critical
op-eds alleging, among other things, that OCR is attempting to eliminate the use of SATs in
college admissions. We, along with staff from Counsel's office and Justice are reviewing the
guide and assisting the Department with strategies for combating the erroneous impression that
the guide is designed to curtail the use of high stakes tests. Rep. Hoekstra has asked Assistant
Secretary of OCR, Norma Cantu, to testify before the Oversight committee next week. She has
been asked to discuss the high-stakes testing guide, enforcement of Title IX in athletics and
bilingual education.
At the hearing, committee members may also ask Cantu about issues related to charter
schools and desegregation. The Justice Department has been asked to sign on to a motion from
the East Baton Rouge school district asking a Court to approve the expansion this fall of two
charter schools serving predominantly African-American students. The Justice Department has
expressed an openness to support the request, but it has not yet received information that it has
requested of the school district to help evaluate the impact of the proposed expansions on the
district's ability to comply with a consent decree. Meanwhile, Clint Bolick and the Institute of
Justice have become involved, suggesting that the Justice Department may oppose these
expansions, seeking to represent parents trying to start a third charter school, and arguing that
charter schools should not be subject to consent decrees and desegregation orders.
(Bruce, do we really want to include this? pjw)
5 cis '1anaaement System
Automated Recor" e
Hex-Dump Conversion
This site parses the emails sent and received by Elena Kagan during her time in the Clinton administration and presents them in a more familiar interface.
You may find that some records are garbled or incomplete, or that conversations are fractured. Please bear with us: the source documents are extremely messy. We're working to improve the quality of the documents hosted here.
Due to the programmatic nature of the tools used to build this site, we recommend checking any research effort against the source files released by the Clinton Library.
You are able to view 26,108 of the 29,281 released emails (89.1%)
