One of the essential missions of Congress is obtain concrete information
from the executive branch about how well or poorly the agencies
are meeting their obligations to the American people. Senator
Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, is a senior member of the
Senate Judiciary Committee. At a hearing on possible terrorist
attacks in the future, Leahy cited TRAC data showing that in the
first eleven months of FY 2003 a total of 236 individuals were
sentenced to prison for criminal acts the department classified
as categorized as terrorism that resulted in a median or typical
sentence of only two months. "Two months is a very short sentence
for any kind of terrorist act," Leahy told the Justice Department's
witnesses. The senator asked for further information to determine
whether the Department might be trying to puff up its record in
the terrorism area by counting cases that had "little or nothing
to do with terrorism."
Statement of
The Honorable Patrick Leahy
