[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 185 (Wednesday, December 10, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10881-S10882]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LEAHY:
  S. 3726. A bill to reauthorize the Crime-Free Rural States Grants 
program; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am pleased today to introduce the Crime-
Free Rural States Reauthorization Act, a bill designed to help rural 
communities deal with a growing drug and crime problems made worse by 
the devastating recession we now face.
  This week the Senate is focused on passing a bill to authorize 
billions of dollars to bail out the automobile industry. Congress has 
already passed legislation providing for hundreds of billions of 
dollars to rescue the financial industry. These are difficult pieces of 
legislation, but we are trying to protect countless jobs and the 
economy as a whole. These efforts have done little, though, to help the 
millions of people in rural America, who have been hit as hard as 
anyone by the devastating effects of this recession, but will see few 
benefits from financial and corporate bailouts.
  We must help rural communities, and they especially need our help as 
they try to pull together to combat the worsening drug and crime 
problems that threaten the safety and well-being of too many in our 
small cities and towns and, most particularly, our young people. The 
Crime-Free Rural States Reauthorization Act will provide just this kind 
of help.
  I pushed for the original Crime-Free Rural States grant program. It 
was first authorized in 2002 and funded in 2003. Like too many valuable 
programs to help local law enforcement and crime prevention, it was 
allowed to lapse under the Bush administration. The program provides 
grants for rural states to come up with a plan to help communities 
confront drug and crime problems and to offer training and assistance 
for local prevention programs and law enforcement. This program can 
help cash-strapped communities with assistance they desperately need.
  Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee traveled to St. Albans, VT, 
to hear from the people of that resilient community about the 
persistent problem of drug-related crime in rural America, and about 
the innovative steps they are taking to combat that problem. The 
introduction of this bill is a small first step to apply the lessons 
learned in that hearing and in previous hearings in Vermont and 
elsewhere.
  Drug-related crime is not just a big-city issue. As we heard in St. 
Albans last week and at a hearing in Rutland earlier this year, drugs 
and related crime are a growing problem in rural communities in Vermont 
and across the country. Fortunately, resourceful communities like St. 
Albans and Rutland are coming together to find innovative, community-
based solutions to these complex problems.
  Of course, law enforcement continues to be an important component in 
our efforts to combat the scourge of drugs. There continues to be an 
urgent need for the Federal Government to support

[[Page S10882]]

state and local law enforcement. What more and more cities and towns 
are finding is that the best solutions involve all segments of the 
community coming together with law enforcement to find meaningful, 
community-based approaches. Solving these problems as they arise is 
essential, but preventing them is even better, and less expensive.
  Unfortunately, for the last eight years, throughout the country, 
state and local law enforcement agencies have been stretched thin as 
they shoulder both traditional crime-fighting duties and new homeland 
security demands. They have faced continuous cuts in federal funding 
during the Bush years, and time and time again, our state and local law 
enforcement officers have been unable to fill vacancies and get the 
equipment they need.
  This trend is unacceptable. I intend to work with the new 
administration to reverse it. Eric Holder, whom President-Elect Obama 
has designated to be our next Attorney General, focused on the 
importance of state and local law enforcement when he was introduced to 
the nation last Monday. He was a local U.S. Attorney and understands 
the critical role of state and local law enforcement, our first 
responders. We need to restore the COPS and Byrne grant programs to 
help support local law enforcement, and I hope we will do a better job 
when it comes to rural communities and rural states. That is why I am 
introducing this bill today to bring back the Crime-Free Rural States 
grant program.
  As a former prosecutor, I have always advocated vigorous enforcement 
and punishment of those who commit serious crimes. But I also know that 
punishment alone will not solve the problems of drugs and violence in 
our communities. Police chiefs from Vermont and across the country have 
told me that we cannot arrest our way out of this problem.
  Combating drug use and crime requires attention to enforcement, 
prevention and treatment. The best way to prevent crime is often to 
provide young people with opportunities and constructive things to do, 
so they stay away from drugs and crime altogether. And if young people 
do get involved with drugs, treatment in many cases can work to help 
them to turn their lives around. Good prevention and treatment programs 
have been shown again and again to reduce crime, but regrettably, the 
Bush administration has consistently sought to reduce funding for these 
important programs. It is time to move in a new direction.
  I will work in the next Congress to advance legislation that will 
give state and local law enforcement the support it needs, that will 
help our cities and towns to implement the kinds of innovative and 
proven community-based solutions needed to reduce crime. The 
legislation I introduce today is a modest beginning, addressing the 
urgent and unmet need to support our rural communities as they struggle 
to combat drugs and crime.
  By funding planning, training, and technical assistance, Crime-Free 
Rural States grants provide an anchor for our rural communities as they 
work to address the devastating problems of crime and drugs. It is a 
first step for us to help our small cities and towns weather the 
worsening conditions of these difficult times and begin to move in a 
better direction.
  I hope Senators on both sides of the aisle will join me in supporting 
this important legislation.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                S. 3726

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Crime-Free Rural States 
     Reauthorization Act''.

     SEC. 2. REAUTHORIZATION OF CRIME-FREE RURAL STATES GRANTS.

       Section 2989 of Part GG of Title I of the Omnibus Crime 
     Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3797y-4) is 
     amended by striking ``2003, 2004 and 2005'' and inserting 
     ``2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012''.
                                 ______