Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 2847, Commerce, Justice, Science, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHIFF. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I want to express my strong support for the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriation bill and at the outset want to congratulate Chairman Mollohan for the extraordinary job that he has done in putting this bill together.
In particular, I want to highlight a couple of key investments in the bill in the areas of law enforcement and science.
In particular, we invest over $800 million in the COPS program that has been very successful in putting additional cops on the beat and deterring criminal activity and keeping our communities safe. That is a vital investment. The legislation also makes a very important investment to those of us that live in the border States in a program called SCAP, which provides assistance to States that have to incarcerate illegal immigrants and bear the costs of flaws in our Federal immigration policy.
Furthermore, the bill makes a very key investment, very substantial investments in DNA technology and backlog reduction. To the degree we can eliminate backlogs of DNA evidence, we can take murderers and rapists off the streets. Of this there is no question: you can tell from a statistical certainty that when you reduce backlogs, you take murderers and rapists off the streets and prevent them from committing further offenses. This is another key investment.
And, finally, let me speak to a science investment in the bill which I think is also very important and that is this legislation keeps some of our most important space science efforts, like the Mars program, on track, which has brought us new, unprecedented information about the world we live in that has led to scientific improvements and innovation here on the ground and is a vital investment in our Nation's future.
So I want to thank you, Chairman Mollohan, for your extraordinary work on this bill, for the key investments in law enforcement and science, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
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