Supporting COPS Reauthorization Act

Floor Speech

SUPPORTING COPS REAUTHORIZATION ACT -- (House of Representatives - May 15, 2007)

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Madam Speaker, I am pleased today that the House will vote to reauthorize the successful COPS program, and I commend our leadership for bringing H.R. 1700 to the floor.

The Community Oriented Policing Services program has allowed our law enforcement agencies to hire over 100,000 police officers nationwide. This has led to significantly reduced crime rates between 1995 and 2005. Unfortunately, the hiring component of this grant program has not been funded in recent years and the program overall has taken severe cuts.

Post-9/11, we have asked our State and local law enforcement agencies to protect not only our communities from crime, but to protect our homeland as well. We cannot continue to put unfunded mandates on our local police forces and expect them to also provide protection from terrorism if we are not willing to provide the Federal aid for them to do so. If Congress fails to fund the hiring of additional peace officers, we risk losing the progress we have made in crime reduction. We must keep pressure up on crime.

By helping to hire local police officers, the COPS program helps our State and local law enforcement bust drug-trafficking rings, take down domestic meth labs, and keep our communities safe.

I encourage my colleagues to vote for H.R. 1700, the COPS Reauthorization Act of 2007.

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