Departments of Commerce and Justice, and Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

DEPARTMENTS OF COMMERCE AND JUSTICE, AND SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008--Continued -- (Senate - October 16, 2007)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, there are few bills that we deal with in Washington, DC, that are more critical to the safety and well-being of our communities than the bill we are considering on the floor today. This legislation is going to help fund Federal law enforcement and justice programs that are absolutely essential if we are going to keep our neighborhoods safe, keep our justice system strong, and make sure our communities are healthy. At a time when our budgets are very tight and our needs are very great, I believe this bill invests in the right priorities. I thank Senator Mikulski and Senator Shelby for their leadership and their very hard work to put this bill together.

But as all of us in this Chamber know, despite their hard work and leadership at their subcommittee to make a sound investment in the health of our communities, the President has said he will veto this bill. According to the administration, the additional funding in this bill is ``irresponsible and excessive.''

That is very hard to fathom when this administration is asking for over $190 billion in emergency appropriations to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for 1 year. While this President easily is spending our money overseas, local communities in my home State and around the country are going without the money they need for very critical programs.

The increases this legislation calls for are a fraction of what this President spends on the wars in a year. The money in this bill will go to revitalize programs that have been overlooked by this administration. My home State, for example, is experiencing a dangerous shortage of FBI agents who do essential work to ensure that we prevent another terrorist attack at home and who perform critical law enforcement duties. That shortage is one example of how this President mixed up the Nation's priorities. But this bill does make a small step toward fixing some of those years of problems.

In my home State, the lack of FBI agents for critical law enforcement needs has been a serious concern for some time, but the urgency of this situation was driven home recently in a series of articles by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The paper's first article noted that since 9/11:

the White House and the Justice Department have failed to replace at least 2,400 agents, transferred from law enforcement to counterterrorism, leaving far fewer agents on the trail of identity thieves, con-artists, hate mongers and other criminals.

The article I referred to found that Washington State has a mere 2.1 FBI agents for every 100,000 residents. That is nearly half the national average.

This past week, I met with police chiefs and sheriffs from across my State, and they agreed this shift has had a real impact on State and local law enforcement. One police chief told me the FBI had virtually disappeared from white collar crime investigations. A sheriff told me the local law enforcement now investigates and prosecutes over 90 percent of all bank robberies, even though this has traditionally been a FBI responsibility.

Another police chief told me the FBI does not have the law enforcement resources to adequately staff antigang task forces, even as the gang presence and gang-related crime increases in our communities.

All of these sheriffs and police chiefs had nothing but praise for the essential work that FBI agents perform in their communities. But even as the FBI focuses on counterterrorism, they ask that it not abandon law enforcement. The Seattle FBI field office has remained understaffed even for counterterrorism agents. That is especially troubling because Washington State's industry-leading companies, international seaports, and important military facilities make it a prime target for a terrorist attack. Three years from now, thousands of people are going to travel through my home State to attend the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. We have to be prepared for the worst. Currently, Washington State ranks 35th in per capita FBI agents. Clearly, that makes no sense.

I thank Senator Mikulski and Senator Shelby for working with me on this issue; specifically an amendment that would end this disconnect and ensure we are placing our FBI agents where they can best protect our communities. It will also get the FBI to tell us how it intends to distribute its resources.

That amendment is the first step toward ensuring that the FBI's priorities are in sync with our country's security needs and its own stated priorities. I commend Senator Mikulski for her recognition of that need. Her work to include additional funding for the FBI in this bill is a very good first step. The next step is to increase funding to hire, train, and place new FBI agents throughout the country that will help to ease the burden the FBI has had to bear since 9/11 changed its mission.

But I think we all know more funding is needed. Unfortunately, if this President believes that increasing

our FBI budget is irresponsible and excessive and plans to veto this bill, we will not be able to make the necessary investments today that will make our country more secure tomorrow.

While Federal agents are critically important to maintaining the security of our country, we all know that State and local law enforcement are the real guardians for our communities. In this post-9/11 world, we have asked them to place counterterrorism at the top of their priorities.

But criminals have not stopped abusing children or robbing stores or dealing drugs. The local police have been told they need to do more with less, but we have reached a point today where we simply cannot ask them to do more without help.

A recent FBI crime report showed that after a decade of declines, violent crime is now rising for the second straight year. We have to make sure it doesn't rise again. This bill restores funding for our State and local law enforcement to nearly $2.7 billion and fills a major gap, after the President cut its budget in half. This will also provide $1.4 billion for State and local law enforcement grants, including $550 million for COPS grants, and over $100 million for Byrne grants. These funds are critically important and they support antidrug and antigang task forces around the country.

They fund communications equipment that helps our police and our emergency response teams talk to each other, something we all know is desperately needed in all our communities.

They fund critical programs to deal with the spread of methamphetamine, and police chiefs and sheriffs have consistently told me these grants were absolutely essential to their ability to protect our communities. Unfortunately, as I said, we have heard the President say he is going to veto this legislation. This bill addresses critical priorities across our country and I urge all my colleagues to support the bill and send the President a message from our constituents at home that he is taking our country's safety and economic well-being in the wrong direction and that we need to change focus and give our communities what they need to be safe and sound and secure.

This bill also addresses vital commercial and economic interests across the Nation.

In my home State, that means helping to ensure a healthy, sustainable salmon population. In Washington State, healthy salmon mean a healthy economy. That's why I am thankful that this bill includes $90 million in funding for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund. This money will help support our State's coordinated effort to restore salmon runs and preserve a way of life in the Pacific Northwest.

When I talk with leaders in my home State about the need to restore our salmon populations, they call it critical.

When I go home and discuss with law enforcement officials, experts and the media, about the need to increase the number of FBI agents, they say it is an urgent problem.

When I talk to local police and sheriffs about the need for COPS and Byrne grants, they say these grants are crucial to the security and safety of our communities.

Yet when I return to Washington, DC, I am told by this President that the money that is so desperately needed at home is ``irresponsible and excessive.''

It could not be clearer that this Administration is out of step with the priorities of the people of State and the people of this country.

We have presented the President a measured, responsible bill to bolster our security and build our economy, and I understand he has decided to reject it.

I urge all my colleagues to support this bill and send the President a message from our constituents at home: That he is taking our country's safety and economic well-being in the wrong direction, and that we need to change focus and give our communities what they need to be safe, and sound, and secure.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source