Reno and Kemp Keynote Conference

CONTACT: Michael Cinelli

PHONE: (713) 831-4794


E-MAIL: mcinelli@rice.edu

RENO AND KEMP KEYNOTE CONFERENCE

Violent crime demands a combination of hard nosed
punishment and community intervention, said Janet Reno, the U.S. Attorney
General, at a conference on domestic policy at Rice University.

“All we have to do is use common sense and take it step by step, child by
child, family by family, school by school, block by block, city by city, and we
can take back America for our children and make it safe for them again,” said
Reno, who spoke at the second annual conference of the James A. Baker III
Institute for Public Policy at Rice.

The conference, titled Domestic Policy Challenges at the End of the Century,
focuses on issues such as crime, devolution of governance and tax reform. The
conference highlights the Baker Institutes commitment to domestic policy.

Reno called for a non-partisan war against crime with Democrats and
Republicans, federal, state and local officials working together to fight
violent crime.

She placed a high priority on supporting and families as the best solution to
ending violent crime.

The solution to violent crime requires more than just building prisons and
beefing up police departments, a panel of academics, and government and law
enforcement officials said.

Lee Brown, the Radoslav A. Tsanoff Professor of Public Affairs at Rice

moderated the panel on Urban Crime and Violence. Other panelists included
Elliott Currie from the University of California; Matt Rodriguez, Chicago
superintendent of police; Charles Moose, chief of police for Portland, Ore.;
Chukwudi Onwuachi-Saunders, deputy health commissioner for the Center for
Disease Control; and Johnny Holmes, Harris County District attorney.

The panel placed the solution for stemming crime on social programs that
address issues of health, poverty and education.

Opening the conference, recent Republican vice presidental nominee Jack Kemp
called for social reform through a revision of the tax code that encourages
investment, creates jobs and fosters ownership.

Allowing people to get access to capital is the only way to fight poverty, he
said.

“The tax policy is an inefficient policy of redistributing wealth,” Kemp
said. Punishing the rich never works, Kemp said. “It punishes the poor who want
to get rich.”

Tax policy issues will be the subject of a conference panel discussion on
Wednesday. George Zodrow, chair of the Rice department of economics, will
moderate the panel, which includes representatives from the U.S. Treasury,
academia, and business.

Following his speech, Kemp was asked if he would run for the presidency in
2000.

“Stay tuned,” Kemp said.

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