Remarks Of
Senator Patrick Leahy
On The Rise In Violent Crime
News Conference
U.S. Capitol Grounds
September 26, 2007
For the second year in a row, the rate
of violent crime again is on the rise. The uptick that the Bush
Administration last year tried to dismiss as a glitch is solidifying
into a troubling pattern.
It’s no coincidence that for years,
the Bush Administration and earlier Republican Congresses have
systematically tried to dismantle front-line support for our local
and state law enforcement in our communities – like the successful
COPS community policing program, along with other targeted help to
the police officers who are in the trenches, fighting crime. The
White House has also tried to minimize support for local first
responders.
Remember how the federal government
was a help, instead of a hindrance, in bringing down rising crime
rates a decade ago? Back then, the Clinton Administration and
Congress forged successful responses like the COPS program, to put
more police on the beat, using proven techniques like community
policing. Local and state law enforcement is where the rubber meets
the road in fighting crime. But step by step, the Bush
Administration has squandered those gains. Incompetence and a
dysfunctional Justice Department are part of the picture, but the
core problem is that this vital partnership with local police
departments just isn’t a priority for the Bush Administration.
Budget decisions are the expression of
a government’s real priorities, and the Bush Administration has
shown that their real priorities are in Iraq, not here at home. For
them, no expense is too large for the blank checks they want from
Congress -- for the Iraqi police force, or for the Iraqi national
guard. It’s a different story for our own police departments and
our own National Guard. We could fully fund the COPS Program at the
full level of $1.15 billion authorized in the bill the Senate
Judiciary Committee has approved, for what we spend on the Iraq War
in just three and a half days. That alone would put 8,000 new
police officers on the beat to make our communities safer.
We have spent about $19 billion since
2003 on the Iraqi police, according to the Jones Commission. For
less than a third of that amount, we could have fully funded the
COPS Program since then.
Eight days’ worth of Iraq spending
would fully fund the Department of Justice appropriations bill for
all state and local law enforcement assistance programs.
Unfortunately, this is one of the bills the President has vowed to
veto.
For a tiny fraction of the money we
spend each year on the Iraq war, we could make our own towns and
cities safer in practical and proven ways. Instead, the Bush
Administration sends us a 2008 budget that would cut the help to
state and local law enforcement agencies by 54 percent – that’s
right, by more than half.
The CJS Appropriations Subcommittee,
under the leadership of Senator Mikulski, is taking solid strides to
restore the $1.5 billion in cuts proposed by the President to state
and local law enforcement programs. The CJS Appropriations Bill,
which was reported out of the Appropriations Committee by an
overwhelming bipartisan majority, rejects these proposed cuts and
recommends a total of $2.7 billion for state and local enforcement.
I’m pleased to report that the Senate
Judiciary Committee also has been working to reverse this trend by
moving forward with tangible steps like the COPS Improvement Act,
the reauthorization of the Edward Byrne Memorial Assistance Grant
Program, a package of school safety measures, and a gang abatement
and prevention bill.
We can’t afford to let the White House
keep the federal government on the sidelines while violent crime
makes a comeback. Fighting crime and partnering with local police
once again needs to be a high priority, and the Democratic Congress
is determined to once again make fighting crime the high priority
the American people need and deserve it to be.
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