Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I thank Chairman Culberson for yielding me the time.

Mr. Chairman, I am proud to announce my support of this bill. It contains $51.4 billion for effective, proven programs within the Departments of Justice and Commerce, as well as NASA and the National Science Foundation. Within that total, funding is targeted at programs that are vital to our economic development, our public safety, and national security.

These important programs, overall, receive a boost of $1.3 billion over last year, allowing us to make critical investments in law enforcement, counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and science and research activities.

For example, the legislation increases funding for the Department of Justice by $852 million above last year's levels, enhancing the way we protect and secure communities across the Nation. That increase will provide the FBI with greater resources to fight terrorism and cyber crime.

It will also allow the DEA to amplify activities, including $372 million to combat prescription drug abuse, what the CDC calls a national epidemic that is taking more lives than car wrecks.

Funding is targeted to high-priority national grants with increases for violence against women programs and the Byrne JAG Program.

The bill also creates a new community trust initiative that will help improve the safety of communities across the Nation and work to facilitate a supportive relationship between these local communities and the police. This includes funding for body camera pilots and research, training, justice reform efforts, and upgraded statistics collection.

Mr. Chairman, the bill also directs funding toward key programs that will help secure America's role as the leader in scientific innovation, grow our economy, and promote job creation. For instance, NASA receives a $519 million increase above last year, keeping us on the forefront of the space frontier.

The National Science Foundation receives a $50 million increase, directing funds to programs that will spur U.S. economic competitiveness. To help protect communities from devastating natural disasters, we provided $5.2 billion for NOAA to help boost weather warning and forecasting efforts.

As with any appropriations bill, Mr. Chairman, the committee had to make some tough choices to live within a tight budget allocation, but that is what the Appropriations Committee does. We make hard decisions.

I believe that this bill does that in a very responsible way, eliminating unnecessary or unneeded programs, reducing funding for other lower-priority programs. This sort of smart budgeting will help improve the way our government operates and show that we can live within our means.

Mr. Chairman, I want to congratulate Chairman Culberson for his successful first go as chairman of this subcommittee. He wanted this tour and is happy to have it and is doing a good job with it, Mr. Chairman, and I am proud of him.

I think he and Ranking Member Fattah and their subcommittee have drafted a good bill that I am proud to have before the House today. As always, I want to thank the staff for their tireless work in drafting and bringing this bill to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, this is the fourth appropriations bill we have brought to the floor this year, and I am glad we are progressing at a great pace on these very important bills.

I am told that this is the earliest and quickest start to appropriations bills in recorded history. I am proud of the work that our committee is doing and, I think, doing good work.

So I urge my colleagues to continue this forward momentum and vote in favor of this very important and very well done Commerce, Justice, Science funding bill.

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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I thank the chairman for yielding.

It is no secret, Mr. Chairman, that there is a strain on our Nation's prison system. As the inmate population continues to rise, our prisons get more and more crowded every day. As the inmate population continues to rise, with 216,000 individuals currently serving Federal sentences, our prisons get more and more crowded every day.

At the end of fiscal 2013--listen to this--25 percent of our medium security inmates and 85 percent of our low security inmates were triple bunked--triple bunked. Considering that 8 out of every 10 medium security inmates has a history of violence, this creates some very serious questions about the safety of the BOP staff, the public, and even other inmates. Updating our prisons will provide greater efficiency and staffing and permits staff to safely oversee more inmates.

Our medium and maximum security prisons house some of the world's most dangerous and violent criminals. The bill before us provides critical funding to the Federal Bureau of Prisons in order to modernize and strengthen our Nation's prison infrastructure. These funds will help protect the public as well as the men and women who work at these facilities. It is imperative that we provide them a safe and secure environment within which to work.

The Federal Government has a commitment to keep the public and prison staff safe, and these dollars are needed to fulfill that commitment. So I oppose this effort to reduce funding for the Bureau of Prisons and urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this amendment.

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