Clinton/Gore.

Over the past three years, President Clinton has led the way toward policies that will bring crime and drug abuse under control. More police are on the streets, thousands of criminals have been prevented from buying guns, and violent crime and murder rates across the country are falling. Cocaine use - the source of most drug related crime - has dropped dramatically in recent years, and Americans' expenditures for illicit drugs have declined 23 percent in the past five years.

At the same time, however, we are witnessing both a troubling change in young people's attitudes toward drugs and an increase in violent juvenile offenses. President Clinton is committed to reversing these trends and continuing our progress.

The Clinton Administration has provided and will continue to provide more resources to state and local law enforcement for juvenile justice than any other administration.

Resources always are an important issue for effective law enforcement. When President Clinton came to Washington, Congress often passed anti-crime bills but not the necessary funding.

This deceptive practice ended with the President's 1994 Crime Bill. This is a clear fact: the 1994 Crime Bill is the largest crime bill ever. It will provide more funding for state and local law enforcement than any other single piece of legislation. Most important, the funding for this historical legislation is provided through the Violent Crime Reduction Trust Fund, in which the savings from a reduction in the federal workforce was set aside to fund exclusively law enforcement programs.

The 1994 Crime Bill significantly strengthens our ability to arrest, prosecute and punish the violent criminals who threaten our communities. This act also made a significant commitment to crime prevention - especially the prevention of youth crime and violence. These crime prevention efforts, if implemented in a comprehensive, sustained way, can do much to support and complement traditional law enforcement by helping to ensure that today's young Americans develop into healthy, responsible and law-abiding adults.

President Clinton is trying to give kids something to say "Yes" to and steer them away from crime when we can. As just one example, he requested $13.6 million for the Fiscal Year 1997, to continue support for the Community Schools Program that keeps school doors open after classes have ended and on weekends and holidays so that young people have a safe place to go and positive things to do. President Clinton has fought the Republican Congress' attempts to defund this program.

President Clinton has strengthened and expanded prevention programs, such as the Safe and Drug Free Schools Act, which reaches more than 97 percent of America's school districts. This act funds many of the DARE officers that are in schools every day, teaching kids about the harms of drugs and steering them from violence. Last year, when Congress tried to gut this important and effective program, President Clinton vetoed the bill and the funding was restored. The President also has supported the GREAT program at ATF, which helps keep kids out of gangs.

We are working to keep dangerous weapons out of our children's classrooms by enforcing a "Zero Tolerance" gun policy in school - you bring a gun to school, you are out for a year.

President Clinton also believes that when juveniles commit adult crimes they often have to be treated like adults. He recently sent to Congress his Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Control Act of 1996, which is a comprehensive approach to fighting gangs and preventing youth violence. It includes tougher penalties, new tools for law enforcement and prosecutors, and smart, effective prevention-orientation approaches. It also will give federal prosecutors the discretion to prosecute serious juvenile offenders as adults for drug conspiracies, firearms offenses and violent crimes.

And whenever there is a crime, there are drugs. President Clinton is very concerned about adolescent drug use and violence. This is why he held the first White House Leadership Conference on Youth, Drug Use and Violence. In addition, the Clinton Administration developed a Methamphetamine Strategy so that the federal government can better assist state and local law enforcement in combating this emerging drug.

President Clinton believes that our number one challenge as Americans is to cherish our children and strengthen our families. We are living in an age of greater possibility for young people to live out their dreams than any point in our history. The President will continue to work for our young people by giving them a greater opportunity to make the most of their lives. He is helping families give their children a brighter future by making our schools, our streets and our communities safer.