[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 28 (Monday, February 13, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1622]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


           THE CASE AGAINST BLOCK GRANTS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, last year, Congress made a promise to put 
100,000 new police officers on our streets. Today, Republicans are 
ready to break that promise. The Republican crime bill does not devote 
a single dollar for cops on the beat. Instead, it creates block grants 
to the States, which may sound like a good idea, but we have been down 
this road before.
  The last time we tried a similar block grant program for law 
enforcement, States used the grant money to buy land, cars for 
politicians, jet planes, financial investments, and to pay for 
consultants.
  By contrast, the crime bill we passed last year is already working to 
put more police in our neighborhoods. My hometown of New Haven, CT, has 
nine new officers on the beat, already.
  Our local law enforcement, our mayors, our chiefs of police, and our 
sheriffs have all thanked us for the cops on the beat program. Members 
of Congress have a choice to make today. Will you stand with law 
enforcement, or will you stand with the practitioners of politics-as-
usual? Stand with the cops, pass the Conyers-Schumer amendment.

                          ____________________