Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008
Floor Speech
COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 -- (House of Representatives - July 25, 2007)
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Mr. WEINER. Mr. Chairman, for those viewers of this debate each year and for my colleagues who think that really very little had changed when the House of Representatives changed from majority Republican to majority Democrat, we are seeing in this bill very profound changes in policy in this country, and none is more profound than the difference in the approach to the COPS program. This year's bill has $100 million for hiring in the COPS program.
In the COPS program, as many of you know, more than 100,000 police officers in small towns, big cities throughout the country were hired in the period beginning in 1995. Yet shortly after the beginning of the Bush administration, the COPS program was slashed and slashed and slashed to essentially die on the vine.
As you see in this chart, in 1995 you had in the neighborhood of 20,000 cops being hired each and every year. In 2005 and 2006, 2007, it was down to zero.
In this year's bill, to the enduring credit of the chairman and ranking member and members of the committee, this is now being funded at $100 million. That is going to allow us an opportunity to hire many, many more police officers.
Now, we have also, in the first couple of months of the new Congress, passed a reauthorization of the COPS program for another 50,000 cops on the beat. Now, it has gone to the other side of this building. It has gone to the other body and seems to be doing what so much legislation does, and that is dying a slow, excruciating death. They say the other body is the ``cooling saucer of democracy.'' They have turned into the deep freeze when it comes to many of the things that this House is doing.
But what this amendment seeks to do is to say let's take that success and let's take it even further. This is one of the programs, the COPS program, it is democratic with a small ``d.'' If you are in a small town, conservative neighborhood, you have gotten COPS. If you are in a big city like mine, you have gotten COPS. What the COPS program argues is that Federal law enforcement, that Federal anti-terrorism means helping local authorities hire more police officers. That is why the Fraternal Order of Police, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Association of Police Organizations, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Sheriffs Association all support dramatically increasing this program.
Now, Chairman Mollohan has taken a program that has essentially been killed and gives it more life. And this is what we need to continue on the trend towards. Now, whether we do it more in this bill with my amendment, or whether we finally get the other body to reauthorize the program and we can start doing this in regular order, we need to realize that as Tom Ridge, the former Secretary of Homeland Security, once said, ``Homeland security starts in our hometown.'' We can't just say to cities, go out and protect yourselves. We need a Federal program that works.
Now, I don't mind pointing out that at the apex of the hiring was also the highest point in our crime reduction in this country. We have seen over the course of several FBI index reports that it has started to creep up more and more and more, and by no small measure because of the reduction in the COPS program.
We need to continue on this arc. The committee has done an excellent job in doing that.
I would be glad to yield to the chairman if he has any feedback for me.
Mr. MOLLOHAN. I appreciate the gentleman from New York's interest in this. As a matter of fact, he was the mover and shaker in the Congress in pointing out that we had 2 years of successive increases in violent crime in the country. He was the first one to point out that in the 1990s, the COPS, the Community Policing Cops on the Beat Program, was extremely effective in reducing that; and in large part, along with other Members, advocated and encouraged the committee to reactivate the COPS hiring program, and we've done that. We've done that with $100 million, which we think will fund approximately 2,700 policemen.
This is a down payment. This is an initiative, and the gentleman is to be commended for providing the impetus for that initiative. So I thank him. We look forward to working with him in future years. I know this is a program that, because of its proven effectiveness in the past, is going to get increasing attention in the future.
Mr. WEINER. Reclaiming my time, I thank you for your attention. And when you're in conference with the other body, if you can grab them by their institutional lapels and get them to move on our COPS throughout the Nation.
Mr. MOLLOHAN. We're going to be up to it.
Mr. WEINER. I appreciate it.
Mr. Chairman, I request unanimous consent that my amendment be withdrawn.
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