Science, State, Justice, Commerce, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006
SCIENCE, STATE, JUSTICE, COMMERCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - June 14, 2005)
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Mr. DREIER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute.
Mr. Chairman, securing our borders is clearly the responsibility of the Federal Government. We have had a program that was initiated in 1994 called the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, SCAAP. It has done a very good job of reimbursing the States for the appropriate incarceration of illegal immigrant criminals, people who have come into this country illegally and committed crimes. We have, unfortunately, seen not the kind of increase in that level of reimbursement that we should, so this amendment proposes that we transfer an additional $50 million from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration to the SCAAP program.
I congratulate the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf) and the committee for putting into place funding at the level of $355 million. I do not believe that that is adequate.
I am pleased to join with my distinguished colleague, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe), the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake), and the distinguished chairman of the full committee, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis), in support of this very important effort to have the Federal Government step up to the plate and ensure that we meet our responsibility.
In my County of Los Angeles alone, it costs $150 million a year for the incarceration of these criminals, and I believe that we need to provide more resources. I hope very much that my colleagues join in support of this important amendment.
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Mr. DREIER. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to express my appreciation to the distinguished subcommittee chairman and congratulate him on his fine work, not only on this issue but the very important NASA programs about which we spoke earlier.
I think this $50 million amount, which enjoys the support, I know, of the distinguished chairman of the full committee, is the right thing to do. In bringing about this reduction from NOAA, we have seen a 53 percent increase in NOAA's administrative expenses over the last 3 years, and we have seen a constant reduction in the SCAAP funding. So I believe this is the appropriate thing to do.
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Mr. DREIER. Mr. Chairman, let me compliment the gentleman on his statement. I totally concur with those goals. The gentleman has never let me forget the importance of keeping oceans as a priority.
The fact of the matter is, as we look at the $5.7 billion budget request for the Department of Commerce, 63 percent of that budget request is for NOAA, which we know is critically important. I do not in any way undermine the importance of it. I do believe, though, if you look at this $50 million in administrative expenses, this is something that clearly could be handled very, very easily within that massive budget of NOAA.
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