Departments of Commerce and Justice, and Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008
Floor Speech
DEPARTMENTS OF COMMERCE AND JUSTICE, AND SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008--Continued -- (Senate - October 16, 2007)
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Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I wonder if the Senator would yield for a question.
Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I would be happy to yield.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I listened to the Senator's presentation. I have indicated to my colleague from South Dakota that I share his instinct and we need better law enforcement on Indian reservations. I do not think there is any question about it.
I appreciate the fact that Senator Mikulski and Senator Shelby added back funds that had been eliminated in the President's budget. But we have a long way to go and we have talked about that here. The instinct is right to try to provide more funding so we are able to deal with those issues.
I held a hearing last week. A report shows that 34 percent of Indian women will be raped or sexually assaulted in their lifetime. That is unbelievable. We have serious law enforcement problems.
But I must vote against this amendment for the following reason: I cannot support an amendment, even though it adds money we need, that we will pay for by eliminating--by reducing funding for legal services, precisely because, as the Senator from Iowa says, legal services are the access to the legal system for low-income folks. It is the only opportunity they have, in many cases, for them to access the legal system.
That budget has been cut, and cut repeatedly. Now we are trying to add some back. To cut it now would be the wrong thing.
I appreciate the Senator yielding to me. I am very interested, I know the Senator from Iowa is very interested, in working with Senator Thune and others, Senators Shelby and Mikulski. I have talked to them to try to find ways to add back to these accounts in the future. We must do that. It has been partially restored in some of these areas by Senators Mikulski and Shelby.
I thank the Senator from Iowa for allowing me to weigh in. I say I certainly support his presentation. I support the instinct of the Senator from South Dakota in wanting to try to improve this area of funding. But we cannot do it by taking away from such important funding as Legal Services.
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