Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriation Act, 2008

Floor Speech

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Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Chairman, I offer this amendment on behalf of myself, Ms. Linda T. Sánchez of California, Mr. Dreier of California, Mr. Hunter, and Mr. Carter of Texas.

This amendment would increase the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program funding by $55 million, a 14-percent increase over the funding level currently included in the bill.

The offset for this increase would be a transfer from three different accounts, $25 million from the departmental management of the Department of Commerce, $25 million from the Department of Administration from the Department of Justice and $5 million from the FBI's Construction and Acquisition Fund.

The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, or SCAAP, provides critical
reimbursement to States and localities for the incarceration of undocumented criminal aliens. This program was created in 1994 to ease the fiscal burden on States and local governments.

SCAAP had its highest funding relative to authorization in fiscal year 1998, 1999 and 2000 under the Clinton administration when $585 million was appropriated. By increasing SCAAP by $55 million, this amendment would bring funding to States and local governments closer to the authorized amount. I would note that this would still be under 50 percent of the authorized amount for SCAAP of 48 percent, in fact. It would bring needed assistance to States such as California, Arizona, Texas, Florida and New York, all of whom have come to rely on SCAAP reimbursement to help absorb the high financial cost of incarceration of aliens.

Over the last 6 months, I have met with many Members of this House, both Republican and Democrat, to listen to their concerns about immigration as we examined the comprehensive immigration reform proposals and various elements of it. One of the issues that was raised on both sides of the aisle is the cost of incarcerating undocumented criminal aliens that is being passed on to States, counties and other localities.

I would note that this amendment, a modest increase of 14 percent, is endorsed by the National Association of Counties, and, likewise, we have a letter from 17 Governors who support increased SCAAP funding going to their States. These States' Governors include Arizona, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Oregon, California, Washington, Utah, Georgia, Florida, Kansas, Illinois, Virginia, New Mexico, New York, Minnesota, Texas and Nevada.

This is a good investment for local governments, for our States. It's part of shouldering our responsibility, because immigration is a Federal responsibility.

I think it's an item where, on a bipartisan basis, Mr. Dreier and I chair our respective State delegations, he the Republican delegation, I the Democratic delegation, that we can deliver jointly.

I respect a great deal, as Mr. Mollohan knows, the chairman of this subcommittee. We have worked together on many items. This amendment should not be seen as critical of his wonderful efforts, but I think we can do just a little bit better, and I think our constituents and counties and our constituents and States will appreciate that we are doing something to ease the burden of incarcerating illegal immigrants.

I would note that all of the studies show that immigration is good for America. Legal immigration is good for America. It boosts productivity. We know that in our high-tech sector, more than half of the startups in Silicon Valley have an immigrant cofounder. There is much to revel in immigration in America.

But having said that, there are costs. This is one of them, something we can do something about, do something about. This bipartisan amendment really deserves the support of us all.

Mr. Chairman, I yield the remainder of my time to the cosponsor, Ms. Linda T. Sánchez of California, noting that the Judiciary Committee on which we both serve is the authorizing committee. She has been a true partner in this effort.

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