[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 16, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E241-E242]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             FULL-YEAR CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2011

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                               speech of

                         HON. CAROLYN McCARTHY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 15, 2011

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1) making 
     appropriations for the Department of Defense and the other 
     departments and agencies of the Government for the fiscal 
     year ending September 30, 2011, and for other purposes:

  Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Chair, I would like to extend my 
sincere appreciation to Rep. Holt, for serving as my designee, and 
offering Amendment No. 12 during consideration of the Commerce Justice 
Science title of HR. 1. The amendment seeks to ensure that there is 
consistent funding included in the CR to implement the NICS Improvement 
Amendments Act of 2007, which became law in January 2008. In addition, 
I would like to thank Rep. Dingell for his unfailing support for NICS 
and support for this amendment. He has been a long time NRA member, and 
a long time supporter of responsible gun laws.
  The National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or ``NICS'', 
is a national database system that keeps track of individuals 
disqualified under current law from purchasing and possessing firearms. 
The NICS Improvement Amendments Act, signed into law in January 2008, 
requires all states to provide NICS with the relevant records needed to 
conduct effective background checks.
  The NICS Improvement Act provides grants to states and territories to 
update their records and transmit the records to the NICS database. 
Since the law was enacted, several states have benefitted from the 
grant program including Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Illinois, New Jersey, 
Texas, Wisconsin and my home state of New York.
  This law imposes no new restrictions on gun owners and does not 
infringe on the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. It simply 
makes improvements to a program that saves lives, and the bill was 
supported by the NRA.
  In FY11, the law was authorized at $375 million, and the 
appropriation level was $20 million in FY10 and carried into FY11 
through the current CR. While I believe that this program is a vital 
component in our fight against crime and should receive the fully 
authorized funding, I understand that tough decisions have to be made 
in this economic environment. That is why I am not seeking the fully 
authorized funding level, but instead am simply asking that we remain 
consistent and continue to fund the program at the FY10 level.
  We need to give this program a chance to work and provide adequate 
funding to ensure that NICS has up to date records. Millions of 
criminal records are currently missing from the databases that make up 
NICS due to funding restrictions and technology issues at the state 
level. As a result, people who should not be obtaining guns, do.
  This point is underscored by the circumstances surrounding the 
shootings at Virginia Tech. Under current law, the shooter in the 
Virginia Tech massacre should not have been able to purchase a firearm, 
but tragically he did. His information never made it into the national 
NICS system. He slipped through the cracks and he was able to purchase 
two handguns, and used them to brutally murder 32 individuals. Sadly, 
this same scenario happens every day.
  The NICS Improvement Act has been effective. Since the NICS 
Improvement Act was signed into law, the number of state records of 
prohibited gun purchasers in the system has increased dramatically. 
According to Dept of Justice data, in Jan 2008 there were about 402,000 
disqualifying mental illness records submitted from the states and 
territories to NICS. In August 2010, that number had more than doubled 
with 930,000 records submitted. The National Center for State Courts 
estimate that more than 2 million disqualifying mental illness records 
should be in the NICS, based on responses from only 42 of 56 U.S. 
states and territories.
  Based on this data we are missing more than half of the records that 
should be in the NICS system. Clearly there is more work to be done and 
by continuing to fund this program at FY10 levels, we will continue the 
effort to keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have 
them. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and express that 
it is the intent of Congress that funding for the NICS Improvement 
Amendments Act be maintained at the FY10 level.

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