Important Step Taken on Issue of Domestic National Security

Floor Speech

IMPORTANT STEP TAKEN ON ISSUE OF DOMESTIC NATIONAL SECURITY -- (House of Representatives - May 15, 2007)

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Murphy) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, we still hope to bring a 30-something hour to the floor this evening, but we may have to wait for another evening, Mr. Speaker.

I wanted to briefly rise for a few minutes, potentially in replacement of our normal 30-something hour this evening, to talk about what I think is a very important step forward that this Congress took today when it comes to the issue of domestic national security.

We hear a lot and have heard a lot from our President and from this Congress over the past several months about trying to change our course in Iraq, trying to do the right thing to make sure that our troops, that our soldiers there are not put in harm's way in the middle of a religious civil war.

For those of us who have been calling for a new direction in Iraq, we do so in part based on what our own intelligence community has told us, through the National Intelligence Estimate, that the war in Iraq, which has become what they call a cause celeb for the terrorist communities, is in fact making this country less safe, not more safe, by creating a breeding ground, a training ground for terrorists and in fact by growing the undeserved derision for this country across the world.

It points us to, I think, a misplaced allocation of resources. While we have been fighting a misguided and bungled war in Iraq, we have been leaving our own borders, leaving our own homeland unsecured.

We know that the National Guard and the Reserve troops are stretched to their limit. I have a GAO report from January of this year stating the high use of National Guard for Federal overseas missions has reduced equipment available for its State-led domestic missions.

Governor after Governor is telling us that their National Guards are not ready to respond to the national emergencies that may confront States. The Governor of North Carolina says, ``We rely on the National Guard to respond to natural disasters, a pandemic or terrorist attack. Currently, we do not have the manpower or the equipment to perform that dual role,'' of responding to both State and Federal needs.

We know that our National Guard is stretched thin. We also know that over a period of time our local law enforcement personnel have been stretched thin as well.

For those of us that watched from State legislatures or from our place in the private citizenry, we were very proud of this Congress in conjunction with former President Clinton when they instituted the COPS program. Over 117,000 additional community police officers were put on the streets of this country. Every State of the Union was a beneficiary of this program.

That program was put by the wayside by this Republican Congress and this President. Today a lot of Republicans got up and spoke in favor of the bill today which basically reinvigorated that community policing program. But it was a Republican Congress that cut that program to the bone.

During the Clinton administration during the 1990s, the COPS program was funded at $1 billion a year. By 2003, the Republican-led Congress had scaled back COPS to $198 million. And by 2005, to $10 million. By 2006, the Congress had completely eliminated COPS funding.

Boots on the street, community police officers on the ground, you want to talk about the first defense against the next terrorist attack on this Nation, it is the community police officers, our law enforcement personnel on the ground.

Today, we made an historic investment in community policing. For my district alone, it means a 50 percent increase in the number of COPS-supported personnel on the ground.

We are going to set a new course in Iraq, and I believe that is going to make this country safer. We are going to put our National Guard and Reserve troops protecting their States. That will make us safer.

But today, this Democratic Congress showed that things changed by investing once again in community policing and the COPS program.

A lot of people wonder whether things really are changing in Washington or whether it is just talk. Today, by making an historic investment in community policing, we did the right thing for our brave law enforcement personnel and national security.

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