Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, to establish justice, the Founders had embraced at the earliest moments the notion that access to our court system was a critically important, indispensable right of citizenship in our country. We had a Republican President, President Nixon, who created the Legal Services Corporation to provide access to our courts, notwithstanding the economic circumstances of Americans.

Legal Services operates in each of our States, and we have a responsibility as we consider this bill to think about where the gaps in justice exist. The chairman has been extraordinarily helpful in trying to focus on this question. However, I think that in terms of the numbers as presented, I side more with the author of the amendment inasmuch as that DEA we are funding--and it is critically important in a city like my own and in communities all across our country--but we are funding DEA at $35 million above the request. That is after OMB, after DEA walked through their numbers, looked at the budget, ascertained what was needed. The committee's mark at the moment, the chairman's mark, would provide more than what was requested, whereas, when we look at Legal Services, it is $80 million shy of what was requested.

So I think that if we are trying to balance the scales of justice here, the idea that thousands of active service military personnel have relied on Legal Services to protect their homes from foreclosure, to deal with other types of issues, that we have veterans who depend on access to community Legal Services or Legal Services as provided under this program, that the House at this moment should consider the author of the amendment and his point, which is that we should provide an additional--it is less than $20 million--is it $15 million?--for the Legal Services Corporation; and that in terms of the DEA we would still be funding it higher than the requested level, but we would be making sure that not only citizens could have access to the courts, but that Active Duty military and our veterans would have access to lawyers that they otherwise could not afford to protect their legal rights, given the fact that they wear or have worn the uniform to protect our due process rights.

I stand in support of this amendment, and I hope that the House would vote in favor of it.

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