American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Floor Speech

AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT OF 2009 -- (Senate - February 11, 2009)

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. I thank Chairwoman Mikulski and the Senator from Vermont. As we work toward economic recovery, ensuring the safety of America's communities is a critical component to economic stability and growth. Local governments across the country are facing extraordinary budget shortfalls necessitating cutbacks in services, programs, and personnel. I have heard from police in my State how drastically the substantial decline in Federal funding for State and local law enforcement has affected them. The financial situation in our country is dire and requires us to do everything we can to help our struggling police forces so they can protect our neighborhoods and communities.

Apart from the program's benefit to community safety, the COPS Hiring Program has obvious and important economic value. All of the funding goes directly to pay the salaries of officers hired to work in police departments across the country. Moreover, many neighborhoods in inner cities and rural towns throughout America that were once crime-ridden and depressed have flourished in the nineties and in this decade, creating businesses, increasing value, and powering local economies. Maintaining a strong community police presence can allow us to protect these economic gains.

With the rising unemployment rate and the foreseeable increase in crime, we cannot afford the continuing depletion of the ranks of our State and local law enforcement officers, nor can we ask them to operate without the resources needed to do the job effectively. Waiving the match requirement, as the House has done, will ensure that all States and localities will be able to afford and accept the COPS funding which is so badly needed.

No city or State has been spared from this recession. I know the chairwoman and the Senator from Vermont understand the importance of ensuring the COPS funding is as accessible as possible and have witnessed the need in their own States as well.

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