Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

Mr. Chairman, let me first just thank the chairman and the ranking member for their tremendous effort in connection with this bill. As well, I thank the chairman for his distinguished service and work as it relates to the issue of gun violence prevention, to which this amendment relates.

In order to address the growing problem of youth gang violence, this amendment sets a minimum allocation amount with respect to funds issued under the Department of Justice's authority to make public safety and community policing grants. It would do so by requiring that no less than $5 million of funding for COPS grants be used ``to establish and implement innovative programs to increase and enhance proactive crime control and prevention programs involving law enforcement officers and young persons in the community.''

This category is presently one of 17 uses of grant amounts authorized under law. However, there is no funding minimum set in law to ensure that these program grants are being allocated to address youth violence. With the growing amount of gang activity that involves young people throughout our country, funding in this particular area is essential.

There are currently at least 1.4 million criminal street gang members and 33,000 street gangs in the United States. This represents a 40 percent increase since 2009. Much of this rapid expansion of criminal street gang activity is caused by the active recruitment of juveniles. According to the FBI, almost 40 percent of gang members presently are young people under the age of 18.

In a report issued by the National Gang Threat Assessment report, criminal street gangs cause 48 percent of violent crime in most jurisdictions. Consequently, there are neighborhoods throughout our country, including many in New York City, that continue to be plagued by violence attributed to rising street gang activity. This, of course, has led to increased drug trafficking, gun violence, human trafficking, and the prostitution of minors, as well as school-based assaults, robberies, and thefts.

The COPS grant program has been a tremendous success, but more must now be done in the area of gang-related youth violence. This issue presents a discreet problem that requires targeted law enforcement solutions. Accordingly, this amendment is designed to ensure that additional funding under the COPS program is allocated to proactive law enforcement programs targeted at the reduction of criminal street gang activity and youth violence.

By setting a funding floor of $5 million in total grants connected to a category already authorized under law, we can take an additional step toward providing State and local law enforcement with the resources needed to protect communities throughout America. I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan objective by voting in favor of this amendment.

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