[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 4 (Tuesday, January 9, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S299-S300]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. FEINSTEIN (for herself, Mr. Chambliss, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. 
        Cornyn, Mr. Obama, Ms. Snowe, Ms. Stabenow, Ms. Collins, Mr. 
        Kohl, Mr. Levin, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Baucus, Mr. Bingaman, Mr. 
        Kerry, Mr. Biden, Mr. Rockefeller, and Mr. Salazar):
  S. 231. A bill to authorize the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice 
Assistance Grant Program at fiscal year 2006 levels through 2012; to 
the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator Chambliss 
and a number of other co-sponsors in introducing the Edward Byrne 
Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Reauthorization Act. This bill would 
take the $1,095,000,000 amount which Congress authorized for the Byrne/
JAG grant program in fiscal year 2006 in the Violence Against Women and 
DOJ Reauthorization Act of 2005 (Pub. L. 109-162), and reauthorize that 
same amount for the program in each year through fiscal year 2012.
  The ``Byrne/JAG'' program resulted from the 2005 consolidation of the 
Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance 
Program, and the Local Government Law Enforcement Block Grants.
  Named after New York Police Officer Edward Byrne, who was killed in 
the line of duty in 1988, it provides critical support to State and 
local law enforcement officials.
  Byrne/JAG is a law enforcement funding program run by the Department 
of Justice. For more than 20 years, grants from Byrne/JAG and its 
predecessor programs have funded state and local drug task forces, 
community crime prevention programs, substance abuse treatment 
programs, prosecution initiatives, and many other local crime control 
programs.
  One of the most popular uses of Byrne/JAG funds is to support multi-
jurisdictional task forces, which help fight drug and firearm 
traffickers, gangs, pharmaceutical diversion, and organized crime in 
America's communities.
  Results from Byrne/JAG are real. According to data compiled by the 
National Criminal Justice Association from self-reported metrics 
submitted by State Administering Agencies for the 2004 grant year, task 
forces funded in part by Byrne/JAG grants were responsible for: 54,050 
weapons seized; 5,646 methamphetamine labs seized; and $250,000,000 in 
cash and personal property seized, not including the value of narcotics 
seized. They were also responsible for removing massive quantities of 
controlled substances from America's streets, including: 2.7 million 
grams of amphetamine and methamphetamine; 1.8 million grams of powder 
cocaine; 278,200 grams of ``crack'' cocaine; 73,300 grams of heroin; 75 
million cultivated and noncultivated marijuana plants, and 27 million 
kilograms of marijuana.
  As Ron Brooks, President of the National Narcotics Officers' 
Associations' Coalition (NNOAC) testified last June, ``more than one-
third of all meth lab seizures were conducted by Byrne-funded task 
forces.''
  We get good returns on this investment. The National Sheriff's 
Association estimates that, with 2,794 personnel in multi-
jurisdictional drug tasks forces, this equates to: 79 drug arrests per 
full-time employee (221,475 total); 6 kilograms of cocaine seized per 
FTE. (17,991 total); 2 kilograms of meth seized per FTE, 5,452 kilos 
total''; 400 grams of heroine seized per FTE, 1,177 kilos total, 306 
lbs. of processed marijuana per FTE, 855,309 total; and 3 meth lab 
responses per FTE, 8,983 total.
  And our rural communities are especially dependent on Byrne/JAG 
grants. Byrne/JAG grants to the States are allocated 60/40, so that 40 
percent of the funds must be set aside for distribution to local 
governments. In short, this is one of the only sources of federal funds 
for sheriffs and police chiefs in many of our smaller towns and 
counties.
  When Byrne/JAG and the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) 
program were well funded, state and local law enforcement officers 
produced real results. It is no coincidence that, during this period, 
we saw more than a decade of steady reductions in violent crime.
  Unfortunately, Federal funding for these justice assistance programs 
has been dramatically slashed in recent years. As late as Fiscal Year 
2003, the Byrne grant programs had been funded at a level of $900 
million. In Fiscal Year 2004, however, it was reduced to $725 million. 
And in FY2005, Byrne/JAG was cut to $634 million.
  That year in California, the Governor issued a notice to the law 
enforcement community, advising that this change would ``significantly 
reduce the amount of drug control and criminal justice funding in 
California''--by a whopping $14 million in one year, just for my State.
  In Fiscal Year 2006, the program was cut even further, to only $416.5 
million--amounting to a 54 percent cut from Fiscal Year 2003. In Fiscal 
Year 2006, and then again in Fiscal Year 2007, the President's budget 
proposed eliminating the Byrne program entirely.
  In response, the Senate voted to restore Byrne funding in Fiscal Year 
2006 to its Fiscal Year 2003 level of $900 million, but that increase 
was taken out of the final conference report.
  For Fiscal Year 2007, the Senate again restored $900 million in a 
budget amendment, but no appropriations bill was passed.
  What have we seen in the wake of these cuts to State and local law 
enforcement and the Byrne/JAG program?
  After a decade of declines, FBI reports for 2005 showed a rise in 
violent crime in every region of our country--an overall increase of 
2.5 percent, the largest reported increase in violent crime in the U.S. 
in 15 years.
  For the first six months of 2006, the numbers for violent crime were 
even worse--up again in every region, and with a surge of nearly 3.7 
percent. And the number of robberies--which many criminologists see as 
a leading indicator of future activity--was up by almost 10 percent. 
The reduction in Byrne/JAG and other similar funding is not the only 
reason for this increase. Experts also cite the spread of criminal 
street gangs like MS-13, for example, as a major factor in the jump in 
violent crime.
  When we are faced with such challenges, however, the Byrne/JAG 
program has a clear role to play in addressing America's growing 
violent crime problem.
  A national integrated threat demands a national integrated response, 
with State and local law enforcement leading the way, but with the 
Federal Government providing meaningful support. Byrne/JAG facilitates. 
that design, by allowing State and local leaders to leverage resources 
in key areas,

[[Page S300]]

and facilitating collaboration among those in law enforcement, 
corrections, treatment, and prevention.
  A review of programs around the country reveals that some Byrne/JAG-
funded task forces receive between $30 and $40 from State or local 
sources for every Federal dollar they receive. Rather than supplanting 
other sources, Byrne/JAG often leverages Federal dollars, by providing 
the incentive needed for local agencies to cooperate, communicate, 
share information and build good cases.
  Because State and local cops account for 97 percent of all drug 
arrests in America, further Byrne/JAG cuts will have a clear effect, as 
NNOAC President Ron Brooks testified: [T]ake away the Byrne-JAG drug 
task forces and I guarantee you will have fewer lab seizures . . . The 
meth supply will continue to grow, as will the toxic meth waste that is 
being dumped in many neighborhoods.
  Unfortunately, some of this is already happening. After the recent 
cuts to Byrne/JAG, the governor of Texas eliminated funding for most 
drug task forces in his State, because he decided the limited funding 
available was needed instead for border enforcement. Narcotics officers 
throughout the United States also report a similar trend of 
eliminations and decreases of task forces.
  Without multi-jurisdictional task forces, officers will revert to 
working within their own stovepipes, arresting mere targets of 
opportunity instead of focusing on organizational targets that have a 
disproportionate impact on the problem. Police officers will return to 
working within their own teams rather than cooperating and using shared 
intelligence to identify wider drug trafficking investigations.
  Since 9/11, we have understandably placed greater emphasis on the 
terrorist threat from abroad, and protecting our borders. But to save 
the perimeter and lose the heartland to international drug cartels, 
American street gangs, local meth cookers and neighborhood drug 
traffickers would be a hollow victory indeed.
  Last year, a group of 15 organizations--including NNOAC, the National 
Troopers Coalition, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, 
the Major City Chiefs' Association, the National Sheriffs Association, 
the National District Attorneys' Association, the National Alliance of 
Drug Enforcement Agencies, the National Association of Counties, the 
National Association of Drug Court Professionals--all came together to 
call for the Byrne/JAG program to be funded at the $1.1 billion level.
  The 15 groups represented more than 456,000 law enforcement officers, 
drug court judges, treatment practitioners, and prosecutors from over 
2,000 counties and more than 5,000 community prevention coalitions. And 
for the 110th Congress, funding Byrne/JAG at the $1.1 billion level 
remains a top law enforcement priority.
  Passage of this bill will respond to such requests from law 
enforcement, and also send a clear message that any further efforts by 
this Administration to reduce or eliminate the Byrne/JAG program in the 
Fiscal Year 208 budget will be strongly resisted by this Congress.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
                                 ______