[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 29 (Tuesday, February 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H1693-H1694]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  0950
          DEBUNKING THE MYTHS: THE 100,000 COPS PROGRAM WORKS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Dickey). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 4, 1995, the gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. 
Richardson] is recognized during morning business for 3 minutes.
  Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, the debate today will be police versus 
pork and politics versus public safety.
  Here is what the President said about the cops program:

       I made a commitment, a promise, to put a hundred thousand 
     more police in our streets because there is simply no better 
     crime fighting tool to be found. I intend to keep that 
     promise. Anyone on Capitol Hill who wants to play partisan 
     politics with police officers for America should listen 
     carefully. I will veto any effort to repeal or undermine the 
     hundred thousand police commitment, period.

  Mr. Speaker, under the Republican plan there is no guarantee that one 
police officer will be hired. It is a pork program of the highest 
order. Here are five myths about the cops program that they are going 
to try to perpetuate:
  Myth No. 1, that the cops program will not put 100,000 new officers 
on the street. It works. The plan does work. With this week's COPS FAST 
awards the President has already provided grants to hire almost 17,000 
new police officers in just 4 months. He is well on 
[[Page H1694]] the way of reaching 100,000 new community police 
officers, and we cannot retreat from this goal.
  Myth No. 2: Crime is only a big city problem, so the cops program 
only helps big cities. Not the case. Primarily it benefits small towns 
and rural America. This week's COPS FAST awards went only to towns and 
communities with populations under 50,000. $433 million awarded under 
COPS FAST is going to enable over 6,500 such small jurisdictions to 
hire over 7,100 new community police officers.
  Myth No. 3, the cops program is another bureaucratic Federal program 
that imposes so many restrictions on cities and towns. It is one of the 
least bureaucratic programs; one page application, one page and you can 
proceed to have an application looked at by the Justice Department. The 
Justice Department announced that the COPS FAST program grants less 
than 6 weeks after the application deadline.
  Myth No. 4: Law enforcement officers oppose the cops program. Here 
are some quotes. ``Not the case.'' ``We strongly support you, Mr. 
President, in your resolve to fight any diversion of funds earmarked 
for the hiring of a hundred thousand police officers.'' Letter from 
Dewey Stokes, national president, Fraternal Order of Police, to the 
President.
  Here is another quote from the Ohio Sheriff Gene Kelly: ``Our 
President in 1992 said he would not forget the people in small towns 
and countries throughout America. He has more than kept his promise to 
us all.''
  From the chief of police in Maryland, Mary Ann Viverette, from 
Gaithersburg, MD: ``Because of President Clinton's effort we will soon 
see a hundred thousand new police on the streets without smoke and 
mirrors. On behalf of my colleagues here and across America, thank 
you.''
  Mr. Speaker, let police versus pork make police the winner and 
politics versus public safety make public safety the winner.

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