[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 30 (Friday, February 13, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H1589]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TAXPAYER FUNDED GET-OUT-OF-JAIL-FREE CARD

  (Ms. FOXX asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I would like to highlight one component of the 
so-called stimulus package that is particularly egregious. There is a 
pile of money for grants for ``pretrial release and pretrial release 
agencies'' in the stimulus. This is an unacceptable use of taxpayer 
dollars. Why? Because this program is a criminal bailout. Expanding the 
budgets of taxpayer-funded pretrial release programs is fiscally 
irresponsible when the private surety bail industry can be utilized to 
a greater degree with no expense to taxpayers.
  In fact, this provision not only puts taxpayers on the hook for 
bailing out criminals, it also would squeeze out private-sector 
solutions, in effect, killing jobs. So much for job creation.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a taxpayer-funded get-out-of-jail-free card that 
will end up costing our economy jobs. It's no wonder we were given only 
12 hours to analyze this 1,000-page bill.

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