[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 6, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S136-S137]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LEAHY:
  S. 150. A bill to provide Federal assistance to States for rural law 
enforcement and for other purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am pleased today to introduce the Rural 
Law Enforcement Assistance Act of 2009, a bill designed to help rural 
communities deal with growing crime problems that threaten to become 
significantly worse as a result of the devastating economic crisis we 
face.
  Congress and the new administration are beginning this session 
focused on passing a stimulus bill that will provide hundreds of 
billions of dollars to restart our economy, create jobs, and reverse 
the economic downturn inherited from the Bush administration. The Bush 
administration has already provided hundreds of billions of dollars to 
rescue the financial industry, and President Bush released billions 
more for assistance to the auto industry. Despite our legislative 
efforts to protect jobs and the economy as a whole, little has been 
done to help the millions of people in rural America, who have been hit 
as hard as anyone by the devastating effects of this recession.
  We must help rural communities stay safe during this economic 
downturn. Rural areas, which lack the crime prevention and law 
enforcement resources often available in larger communities, have a 
particular need for assistance to combat the worsening drug and crime 
problems that threaten the well-being of our small cities and towns 
and, most particularly, our young people. The Rural Law Enforcement 
Assistance Act of 2009 will provide just this kind of help.
  This bill will reauthorize a rural law enforcement assistance program 
first passed by Congress in the early 1990s. Like so many valuable 
programs that help local law enforcement and crime prevention, funding 
for this program was allowed to lapse under the Bush administration, 
despite its effectiveness in contributing to the record drop in crime 
in the late 1990s.
  The program would authorize $75 million a year over the next 5 years 
in new Byrne grant funds for State and local law enforcement, 
specifically for rural States and rural areas within larger States. 
This support would be used to hire police officers, purchase necessary 
police equipment, and to promote the use of task forces and 
collaborative efforts with Federal law enforcement. Just as important, 
these funds would also be used for prevention and treatment programs in 
rural communities; programs that are necessary to combat crime and are 
too often the first programs cut in an economic downturn. This bill 
also authorizes $2 million a year over 5 years for specialized training 
for rural law enforcement officers, since training is another area 
often cut in hard times. This bill will immediately help cash-strapped 
rural communities with the law enforcement assistance they desperately 
need.
  In December, the Senate Judiciary Committee traveled to St. Albans, 
Vermont, to hear from the people of that resilient community about the 
growing problem of drug-related crime in rural America, and about the 
innovative steps they are taking to combat that scourge. The 
introduction of this bill is a step forward to apply the lessons 
learned in that hearing and in previous crime hearings in Vermont and 
elsewhere.
  Crime is not just a big city issue. As we heard in St. Albans last 
month, and at a hearing in Rutland, Vermont, earlier last year, the 
drugs and violence so long seen largely in urban areas now plague even 
our most rural and remote communities, as well. As the world grows 
smaller with better transportation and faster communication, so do our 
shared problems. Rural communities also face the added burden of 
fighting these crime problems without the sophisticated task forces and 
specialized squads so common in big cities and metropolitan areas. In 
fact, too many rural communities, whether in Vermont or other rural 
States, don't have the money for a local police force at all, and rely 
almost exclusively on the state police or other state-wide agencies for 
even basic police services. In this environment, we must do more to 
provide assistance to those rural communities most at risk and hardest 
hit by the economic crisis.
  Unfortunately, for the last 8 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, and that is why we must restore funding 
for rural law enforcement that proved so successful in 1990s, when 
crime fell to record lows in rural and urban areas alike.
  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 rural communities. Police chiefs from Vermont and across the 
country have told me that we cannot arrest our way out of this problem.

[[Page S137]]

  Combating drug use and crime requires all the tools at our disposal, 
including 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. 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 with the new administration 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 beginning, addressing the urgent and 
unmet need to support our rural law enforcement as they struggle to 
combat drugs and crime.
  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. 150

       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 ``Rural Law Enforcement 
     Assistance Act of 2009''.

     SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATIONS FOR RURAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES.

       (a) Authorization of Appropriations for Rural Law 
     Enforcement.--Section 1001(a)(9) of title I of the Omnibus 
     Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 
     3793(a)(9)) is amended to read as follows:
       ``(9) There are authorized to be appropriated to be carried 
     out part O--
       ``(A) $75,000,000 for fiscal year 2009;
       ``(B) $75,000,000 for fiscal year 2010;
       ``(C) $75,000,000 for fiscal year 2011;
       ``(D) $75,000,000 for fiscal year 2012; and
       ``(E) $75,000,000 for fiscal year 2013.''.
       (b) Clarification of Rural State Definition.--Section 
     1501(b) of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe 
     Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796bb(b)) is amended by 
     striking all that follows ``a State in which the largest 
     county has fewer than'' and inserting ``200,000 people, based 
     on the decennial census of 2000 through fiscal year 2009.''.
       (c) Authorization of Appropriations for Rural Law 
     Enforcement Training.--Section 180103(b) of the Violent Crime 
     Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 U.S.C. 14082(b)) 
     is amended to read as follows:
       ``(b) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are 
     authorized to be appropriated to carry out subsection (a)--
       ``(1) $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2009;
       ``(2) $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2010;
       ``(3) $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2011;
       ``(4) $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2012; and
       ``(5) $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2013.''.

     SEC. 3. CLARIFICATION OF TITLES.

       (a) Omnibus Crime Control Act.--Part O of the title I of 
     the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 
     U.S.C. 3796bb et seq.) is amended by--
       (1) striking the part heading and inserting ``Rural Law 
     Enforcement''; and
       (2) striking the heading for section 1501 and inserting 
     ``RURAL LAW ENFORCEMENT ASSISTANCE''.
       (b) Violent Crime Control Act.--Section 180103 of the 
     Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (42 
     U.S.C. 14082) is amended by striking the heading for the 
     section and inserting ``Rural Law Enforcement Training''.
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