Congressional Record—Senate S13151
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November 17, 2005 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S13151 Alternatives Internationales, Amiens tion. However, I rise to explain that I across our national borders from State Me´tropole—JDA, Amina, Antena 3 TV, Arte, am voting for this bill reluctantly be- to State and city to city by sophisti- Associacio´ n de la Prensa de Ca´ diz, Assas/IFP, cause I feel that some of the funding cated drug cartels and street gangs. Avaldoci-Union Web periodistas, Azur FM, priorities set forth in the bill will leave How does a local sheriff prevent drugs Bel RTL (French-language Belgian radio sta- tion), BFM, Cadena SER, Cambio 16 our communities more vulnerable to that start out in a foreign country Aldateka Hamasei, Espacio de Informacion terrorist attacks traditional crime. In from being trafficked into his or her General (EIG), Cape Breton Post, Baden- particular, this bill continues the county? How does a police chief pre- Baden Press Club, Bordeaux Press Club, wrongheaded trend of slashing Federal vent the recruitment of local kids into Clermont-Ferrand Press Club, Lille Press funding for State and local law enforce- international street gangs? In my opin- Club, Montpellier Press Club, Nimes Press ment and important criminal justice ion, crime is a national problem, and it Club, La Semaine de Nıˆmes, Press Club of programs. This bill slashes funding for requires a national response. The COPS Saint-Etienne and La Loire, UCPF, the Justice Assistance Grant and the Program demonstrated the Federal Strasbourg Press Club, Toulon Press Club, COPS Program. And, for the first time, Government’s commitment to ap- Pays Basque Press Club, Grenoble and Ise`re Press Club, Corriere Canadese, Coup d’oeil/ the Congress has decided to zero out proach crime as a national problem— Vers l’avenir, Courrier International, the COPS hiring Program. I believe and it worked. Dernie`res Nouvelles d’Alsace, that this decision is a terrible mistake I would also point out that State and Diariocritico.com, Echo vedettes, Edmonton on so many levels, and I fear that our local law enforcement forms our first Sun, El Correo Espanol/El Pueblo Vasco, El Nation’s citizens will be less safe from line of defense against terrorism. Mundo, El Pais, El Periodico de Catalunya, traditional crime and terrorism as a re- Homeland security experts have point- El Punt, El Siglo, En Marche, Enjeux sult. Further, the bill slashes Federal ed out the value that community polic- internationaux, Festival International du assistance for the effective and cost-ef- ing programs can have in combating Scoop et du Journalisme, Flair/L’Hebdo, ficient drug court program by an as- France 2, France 3 sud Languedoc- terrorism. This only makes sense—it is Roussillon, France bleu pays d’Auvergne, tounding 75 percent. the local officer who knows the neigh- France Culture, France Info, France Inter, Back in 1994 when we passed the leg- borhood who will be able to provide the France Soir, Fun Radio, Gene`ve Home Infor- islation that created the COPS Pro- types information necessary to help in- mation (GHI), Grands Reportages, gram, our crime rates were at all-time filtrate a local terror cell. In addition, www.cubantrip.com, Ici, Il Manifesto highs. At that time, we made a com- it will be a local officer walking the (Rome)(Q), Institut Pratique de Journalisme, mitment to our State and local law en- beat who happens to catch a suspect ISR Info, JHR McGill Newsletter, forcement partners. During those trying to pump sarin gas into the local Kommunalarbetaren, L’Expansion, years, we invested roughly $2.1 billion ´ mall air-conditioning ducts. It won’t be L’Express, L’Express.fr, L’Humanite, for State and local law enforcement L’Union du Cantal, L’Union(s), La presse a brave Special Forces agent with dans tous ses e´tats CIBL, La Tribune, La each year and substantially upgraded night vision goggles; it will be a local Vanguardia, La Voz del Occidente, Le our ability to combat crime. We added cop walking the beat. In this era of un- Courrier Picard, Le Devoir, Le Figaro, Le over 100,000 officers to patrol our neigh- certainty, we need to be providing Journal du Dimanche, Le Ligueur, Le Maine borhoods, and we expanded crime pre- more support for our local police agen- libre, Le Monde, Le Mouv’, Le Nouvel vention programs such as community cies to help make their efforts against Observateur, Le Nouvelliste (Q), Le Peuple, policing programs across the Nation. terrorism and crime as robust as pos- Le Populaire du Centre, Le Quotidien What was the ultimate result? Crime ´ sible. Jurassien, Le Reflet, Le Republicain Lor- rates for violent crime, murder and rain, Le Semeur hebdo, Le Soir, Le Soir And by cutting the drug court pro- Magazine, Le Te´le´gramme de Brest et de rape were all reduced, and today they gram—one of the most effective pro- l’Ouest, Le Vif/L’Express, Les Cle´s de remain at all-time lows. Many law en- grams to reduce substance abuse in the l’Actualite´, Les Petites affiches, Lethbridge forcement experts and local officials criminal population—we are sending a Herald, Libe´ration, www.liberation.fr, credit the COPS Program for helping devastating message to the 16,000 indi- L’Inde´pendant, Maires de France, Mairie to achieve these results. In fact, no viduals that graduate from drug courts d’Arlanc, Mairie de Longeau, Mairie de one, to my knowledge, with law en- each year. We are telling them that we Nancy, Mairie de Romans/Romans Magazine, forcement expertise has argued other- don’t care that diversion programs are Maison de la presse de Charleroi, Maison de wise. The International Association of la presse de Mons, McGill Daily, Me´moire de successful at helping people overcome trame, Me´tro Belgique, Midi Libre, Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriffs addiction to reenter society as produc- Milhistorias, Miljo¨ rapporten, Mirror, Mozaik Association, the Fraternal Order of Po- tive citizens, holding down jobs, and re- Media, Nice Matin, NRJ, Okapi, Ottawa Cit- lice, the National Association of Police gaining custody of their children. We izen, Ottawa Sun, Ouest-France, Paca Infor- Organizations, and other local law en- are sending a message that we would mations e´conomiques, Paris Normandie, forcement groups all support the COPS prefer to revert to the bad old days of Pe`lerin magazine, Perfiles, Periodistas- Program. Attorney General Ashcroft locking up nonviolent drug offenders in es.org, Photographie.com, Plurimedias, has stated that the COPS Program was prisons where most will get no drug ‘‘Points chauds’’ sur Telequebec, Pressens a miraculous success, and Attorney Tidning, Prix Bayeux des correspondants de treatment and they will most likely guerre, Radio Classique, Radio contact/Con- General Gonzalez stated that the COPS just sink deeper into a life of crime. tact Inter Radio Coˆ te d’Amour, Radio Program put officers on the street and And what message are we sending to Nostalgie, REE, RFI, RMC, RNE, RTBF, we reduced crime. Moreover, a recent the 70,000 people currently enrolled in RTBF TV, RTL–TVI, Servimedia, report by the Government Account- drug courts who are working hard to So¨ dermanlands Nyheter, Star Phoenix, SVM ability Office concluded that COPS hir- live sober, crime-free lives? By slashing MAC, Te´le´ Bruxelles, Te´le´pro, Te´le´rama, ing grants had an impact on reducing funding for the drug court program we TF1, The Concordian, The Link, The Tele- crime rates. are telling them that we are not in- gram, Tiempo, TV3, TV3 de Catalunya, TV5 Why would the Congress eliminate a vested in their recovery and we are monde, TVE-Television nationale, UDF, Vers program that is strongly supported by l’avenir, Vlan, VSD, www.expotimes.net, putting their future in drug court pro- www.press-list.com, Les Journalistes- local law enforcement officials and has grams in jeopardy. e´crivains pour la Nature et l’Ecologie. been proven effective by statisticians It makes absolutely no sense to me f at the Government Accountability Of- that we are cutting this cost-effective fice? Well, it has its basis in ideology. program by 75 percent. By enrolling SCIENCE-STATE-JUSTICE Some of my Republican colleagues nonviolent drug offenders in drug APPROPRIATIONS argue that local crime is a local prob- courts, States save an enormous Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, yesterday lem and the Federal Government amount of money. One study showed the U.S. Senate approved the con- should not be funding these local ef- that California’s drug courts save the ference report to accompany H.R. 2862, forts. I completely disagree. How can it State $18 million a year. Another study the Science-State-Justice appropria- be a local responsibility when roughly showed that every dollar spent on a tions bill. I voted for this legislation 60 percent of all the crimes committed drug court program saves the city of because it provides critical funding for in America relate to drugs, abuse of Dallas, TX, $9.43 over a 40 month pe- the Department of Justice, the FBI, drugs, and the sale and trafficking of riod. It is inconceivable to me that we and the Drug Enforcement Administra- illicit drugs? These drugs are smuggled would choose to cut this program. The VerDate Aug 31 2005 00:22 Nov 19, 2005 Jkt 049060 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A17NO6.085 S17NOPT2 S13152 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE November 17, 2005 National Association of Drug Court the same 32 percent rate. This will not have done this because on Feb- Professionals estimates that our ac- level the playing field for operations in ruary 21 they were more than 2 days’ tions here today will result in more Puerto Rico and operations in the walking distance from the crime scene.