[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 163 (Thursday, October 25, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13451-S13452]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BIDEN:
  S. 2237. A bill to fight crime; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President. I rise to mark the introduction of the 2007 
Biden Crime Bill because a perfect storm is gathering with respect to 
crime in America, and we need bold action to get us back on track.
  Before I discuss the specifics of my legislation, I want to talk to 
you about what is feeding this perfect storm. Since 2001, Federal 
funding for local law enforcement has been slashed by billions of 
dollars--from about $2,1 billion per year in the nineties to a proposed 
level of $32 million in 2007. The COPS hiring program has been 
eliminated completely.
  At the same time, President Bush has reassigned more than 1,000 FBI 
agents from fighting crime to combating terrorism. Certainly, this was 
necessary, but he has not replaced them. A bitter irony results--we 
have improved our ability to fight international terrorism, but left 
our communities here at home less safe from the threat of murderers, 
rapists, and drug kingpins.
  This is the perfect storm: asking local law enforcement to do much 
more for a growing population while giving them much less--less Federal 
funding and fewer Federal agents with whom to partner. As a result, 
local law enforcement has had to give up crime prevention practices, 
like community policing, in order to stay on top of rising demand. They 
are doing their level best, but they need more help.
  Early stages of the storm are upon us. The FBI's Uniform Crime 
Reports show a rise in violent crime and murder for the second straight 
year. This hasn't happened since 1994. Last year, crime rose at the 
highest rate it had in 15 years and this year we add another 1.9 
percent increase.
  The Police Executive Research Forum reports that the homicide rate 
rose more than 10 percent in metropolitan areas around the country, 
like Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Kansas City, 
and Philadphia. Don't believe the statistics? Just ask your local cops. 
They will tell you they are seeing more crimes with a higher level of 
violence.

  Back in the nineties we faced a similar crime crisis. In 1994, 
Congress passed the Crime Bill, and it transformed the Federal approach 
to fighting crime. It used a three-part system: invest in prevention 
programs, dedicate Federal support to community-oriented policing, and 
ensure that offenders serve tough-but-fair prison sentences. It worked. 
Crime dropped for eight consecutive years. Violent crime and murder 
rates dropped more than 30 percent
  The bill I introduced today is the most comprehensive crime bill in 
more than a decade and it builds on the successful approach of the 1994 
Crime Bill.

[[Page S13452]]

It invests more than $6 billion in tried and true prevention programs 
that recognize that the first step to fighting crime is protecting kids 
from neglect and abuse and providing them with a stable family, 
positive early education, and someplace safe and constructive to spend 
the critical after-school hours.
  My bill reauthorizes the COPS program and provides $1.15 billion per 
year to hire, equip, and train 50,000 new police officers, and hire 
additional local prosecutors. Study after study has demonstrated the 
effectiveness of the COPS program, and every major law enforcement 
agency in the country supports it. It is high time we started funding 
it again.
  In addition, the bill provides funds to hire an additional 1,000 FBI 
agents dedicated to fighting crime and an additional 500 DEA agents 
dedicated to dismantling drug trafficking organizations. The Federal 
Government cannot make the trade-off between fighting crime and 
terrorism--we owe it to our citizens to do both.
  The bill invests more than $1 billion in preventing recidivism by 
ensuring that when prisoners are released into society, they have the 
vocational training, the drug treatment, and the housing they need to 
reintegrate as law-abiding, productive members. Currently, over 650,000 
ex-offenders are released from Federal and State prisons each year. 
Within 3 years of release, two thirds will commit another crime. That 
is hundreds of thousands of crimes each year, and we need to bring that 
number down.

  Finally, the bill addresses developments in crime fighting and in 
criminal trade craft. Mr. President, 13 years ago, online sexual 
predators, Internet copyright infringement, and computer hacking were 
virtually unknown. Today they are common crimes with real victims. This 
bill ensures that law enforcement has the resources and legal tools it 
needs to prevent, investigate, and prosecute such crimes.
  The bottom line is that fighting crime is like cutting grass--you 
stop mowing the lawn and one day you'll look outside and see a real 
mess. We can't ignore crime and hope it goes away. We've made that 
mistake over the last 6 years, and our communities are paying the 
price.
  We have to get back to cutting the grass. This legislation takes a 
comprehensive approach once again to fighting crime. It renews our 
financial commitment to rebuilding law enforcement capabilities at the 
Federal, State, and local level. It is a significant step toward making 
good on one of Congress's most sacred duties to our citizens protecting 
them from crime and fostering safe communities. I urge my colleagues to 
support this bill.
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