Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 2006 Through 2009

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE APPROPRIATIONS AUTHORIZATION ACT, FISCAL YEARS 2006 THROUGH 2009 -- (House of Representatives - September 28, 2005)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, the bill as passed by the Committee on the Judiciary makes important improvements on the Department of Justice authorization. It was approved on a bipartisan basis. It deals with the Violence Against Women Act, especially as it applies to immigrants, the COPS authorization, fighting drug abuse. It adds administrative efficiencies, and, as I indicated, it came out of committee on a bipartisan basis. Unfortunately, the manager's amendment will ruin this bipartisan cooperation.

Reference has been made to the letter we have received from the NAACP that points out that the bill as passed out by the Committee on the Judiciary was much better than the manager's amendment.

Mr. Chairman, there were no hearings on this amendment, there is no public comment, it is just a manager's amendment which is supposed to be uncontroversial. It would have been helpful if we could have had committee consideration and agreed on bipartisan language.

I am sensitive to the concerns of the chairman that the Constitution may jeopardize the language that is in the bill, but I think we should have worked it out, and, in the absence of an agreement, I would hope that we would defeat the manager's amendment. If we are expected to appropriately address and relieve racial tensions in our communities, the only way I think we can do this appropriately at this point would be to defeat the manager's amendment and come back and try to work out language that everyone can agree on.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

http://thomas.loc.gov