Cops Improvements Act Of 2007

Floor Speech

COPS IMPROVEMENTS ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - May 15, 2007)

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Mr. COHEN. I thank the chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I proudly rise in support of this bill. It is the bill that I heard most about when I campaigned.

Crime is the number one issue in Memphis, Tennessee, and I think it is the number one issue in most areas in this country. I spoke with the Afro-American Police Association, and the issue they raised to me was the COPS Program, that community policing works.

I spoke with people in the district and they knew that the COPS Program had been successful, that it worked with community policing, and they knew it had been cut by this Congress and they couldn't understand why, and I couldn't tell them. I told them I was going to come to Congress and do what I could to see that the COPS program was reimplemented, that it was funded in a proper fashion, and that it helped cut crime.

In this bill we have an opportunity to work together to bring our troops home and to support our troops because veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq will be given priorities when feasible to get these positions, to come back and render their abilities and their experience for our people rather than the people of Baghdad.

Support our troops, support the COPS Program and make our streets safer.

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Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, in my remarks in support of H.R. 1700, the ``COPS Improvements Act of 2007,'' I refer to amended language in the bill that would have required COPS grant recipients participating in the ``Troops-to-Cops'' program to give special hiring preference to former members of the Armed Forces who served in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. I first introduced this provision in an amendment during the Judiciary Committee markup of H.R. 1700. I withdrew that amendment with the understanding that, after working with Ranking Member Lamar Smith upon the committee's urging to craft mutually agreeable language, this provision was to be included in the final version of H.R. 1700.

Through what I believe to have been an inadvertent omission, the hiring preference for veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom was not included in the final version of H.R. 1700 that has been presented to the full House of Representatives. It is my understanding that the language will be added either in the Senate bill or at conference and, therefore, will be contained in the bill sent to the President for his signature. '

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