[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 54 (Tuesday, March 28, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2049-S2051]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Mr. KAINE (for himself, Mr. Wicker, and Mrs. Murray):
S. 754. A bill to support meeting our Nation's growing cybersecurity
workforce needs by expanding the cybersecurity education pipeline; to
the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, a skilled workforce is essential to
addressing the growing cybersecurity challenges in the United States.
In both the public and private sectors, a shortage of skilled cyber
security professionals has hindered the Nation's cyber preparedness.
According to a 2017 Global Information Security Workforce Study, 1.8
million more cyber security professionals will be needed worldwide by
2022.
Data breaches at the Office of Personnel Management in 2015
highlighted the need for robust cyber security protections at the
Federal level, which include a strong and skilled workforce. Since
2001, the Federal Government has operated a cyber security education
program known as CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service. Thanks to great
leadership by Chairman John Thune and the U.S. Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Congress codified the CyberCorps
Program as part of the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014. Serving
roughly 70 institutions, the National Science Foundation, NSF, grants
award to institutions as part of the CyberCorps Program. Institutions
utilize grants to build capacity for cyber security programs and
provide scholarships to students. Scholarship recipients must fulfill a
service requirement in a federal, state or local government cyber
security job upon graduation.
In recent years, more community colleges have provided opportunities
for students to gain much needed cyber security skills. An October 2015
study by the National Academy for Public Administration reviewed the
CyberCorps Program and formulated major recommendations to improve it.
One of the Academy's recommendations was to include qualified 2-year
programs in the program regardless of their association with a 4-year
institution. Currently, NSF only provides scholarship awards to
students in 2-year programs who will transfer into a 4-year program.
Today, I am pleased to introduce with my colleague Senator Roger
Wicker, the Cybersecurity Scholarship Opportunities Act of 2017. This
legislation will improve the federal cyber security workforce pipeline
by directing the CyberCorps Program to provide 5 percent of
scholarships to career changers and military veterans at qualified 2-
year programs with no transfer requirement. The bill would also codify
CyberCorps' K-12 education program and align the skills required for
scholarship eligibility with the National Initiative for Cybersecurity
Education Framework.
In addition, the bill would enhance cyber security protection for
critical infrastructure by allowing CyberCorps graduates, on a case-by-
case basis, to meet their service requirements in critical
infrastructure missions at government-affiliated entities like the
Tennessee Valley Authority. Just today, a report by the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology found that digital threats to U.S. critical
infrastructure demand attention and that the Nation does not produce
enough graduates with the skills to protect critical infrastructure. It
recommended that the President take steps to increase the supply of
skilled professionals. By allowing CyberCorps graduates to fulfill
service obligations in critical infrastructure missions, this
legislation represents an important step in the right direction.
The Cybersecurity Scholarship Opportunities Act is a commonsense,
bipartisan bill that would help students succeed and strengthen our
national security. There are cyber security jobs in Virginia and across
the country that are going unfilled, and it is clear we must make it
easier for students to access the programs that prepare them for these
roles.
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By Mr. REED (for himself and Ms. Collins):
S. 743. A bill to strengthen the United States Interagency Council on
Homelessness; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Mr. REED. Mr. President, along with Senator Collins, I am introducing
legislation that would eliminate the sunset date for U.S. Interagency
Council on Homelessness--the Council--so that this independent agency
can build upon its success in helping to prevent and end homelessness
nationally.
The Council was established under the Reagan administration as part
of the landmark McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987. Since
that time, it has worked across the Federal Government and private
sector to coordinate homeless assistance nationally. In 2009, the
Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing, or
HEARTH Act, which I authored and introduced along with Senator Collins
and others, expanded the Council's role to work with public, nonprofit,
and private stakeholders to develop a national strategic plan to end
homelessness. On June 22, 2010, the Council unveiled this plan, called
Opening Doors, which has guided its work to develop and expand on
effective strategies across the country to prevent and end
homelessness.
Since Opening Doors was unveiled, the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development, HUD, reports that overall homelessness has decreased
by 14 percent, chronic homelessness by 27 percent, and family
homelessness by 23 percent. In addition, we have seen veterans'
homelessness drop by 47 percent. This progress is not only a result of
the more than $500 million Federal investment in housing and supportive
services through programs like HUD-VASH but is also because of the
direction the Council provides to the Departments of Veterans Affairs
and HUD, as well as public housing agencies administering assistance at
the local level. Specifically, the Council helped various partners
align their resources, efforts, goals, and measures of success for
serving homeless veterans. Under this approach, the Commonwealth of
Virginia, Connecticut, Delaware, the city of New Orleans, and DeKalb
County in Georgia, to name a few, have all declared an end to veterans'
homelessness.
Yet more work remains. And here, too, the Council is an important
part of developing solutions. For instance, nearly 36,000 unaccompanied
youth under the age of 25 experienced homelessness in 2016. While some
communities have started to develop responses to youth homelessness, it
is a complex problem that requires a tailored approach taking into
account the local variables of foster care, primary to postsecondary
education, housing, and healthcare systems. Finding new ways to deliver
and fund assistance to this diverse population is essential, and that
is why Senator Collins and I held a hearing in our subcommittee on this
matter and worked together to include over $40 million in targeted
resources to address youth homelessness in both the fiscal year 2016
and 2017 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, THUD,
appropriations bills. As part of this new funding, the Council will be
executing a broader collaborative effort with foster care networks, the
juvenile justice community, and education partners to create and find
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success in coordinated, cost-effective solutions that meet community
needs. The Council's expertise in implementing complex Federal programs
at the local level will continue to be critical to the success of this
initiative.
For all of this good work the Council has done and continues to do,
it is vital that we keep its doors open. The Council, as the only
agency at the federal level charged specifically with addressing
homelessness, has helped communities not only reduce homelessness, but
it has also helped to save money. We know that people experiencing
homelessness are more likely to access expensive health care services
and spend more time in incarceration--which are extremely costly to
taxpayers, states, and local governments. According to the National
Alliance to End Homelessness, ``Based on 22 different studies from
across the country, providing permanent supportive housing to
chronically homeless people creates net savings of $4,800 per person
per year, through reduced spending on jails, hospitals, shelters, and
other emergency services.''
The Council has helped to build upon these estimated savings by
identifying and tailoring cost-effective solutions that reduce the
level of health care services, as well as recidivism, for individuals
experiencing chronic homelessness. In fiscal year 2016 alone, the
Council's modest $3.5 million budget catalyzed more than $5 billion in
combined Federal resources that aim to address homelessness. It
develops national strategies that inform the work and improve the cost-
effectiveness of programs administered by 19 Federal agencies, and as a
result, communities and Sates are able to leverage housing, health,
education, and labor funding more strategically and effectively.
In our current budgetary environment we need a wise and creative arm
to help our communities identify and maximize resources and
opportunities where possible, to ensure we are actually addressing
homelessness, and not contributing to it. The Council is proof that the
government can work and save money in the process, and our bipartisan
legislation ensures that the Council's doors remain open until there
truly is an end to homelessness nationwide.
I thank the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the Rhode Island
Coalition for the Homeless, HousingWorksRI, the Council of Large Public
Housing Authorities, A Way Home America, Community Solutions, the
National Low Income Housing Coalition, the National Coalition for
Homeless Veterans, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty,
Funders Together to End Homelessness, the True Colors Fund, the
National Housing Trust, the National Health Care for the Homeless
Council, LISC, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, National
Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, the Public Housing
Authorities Directors Association, National Network for Youth,
LeadingAge, Heartland Alliance, National Housing Conference, the
National AIDS Housing Coalition, Covenant House International, the
Coalition for Juvenile Justice, the Forum for Youth Investment, the
Housing Assistance Council, Volunteers of America, the Coalition on
Human Needs, the Corporation for Supportive Housing, the Technical
Assistance Collaborative, and the National Coalition for the Homeless
for their support. I urge our colleagues to join Senator Collins and me
in supporting this legislation.
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By Mr. FLAKE (for himself and Mr. McCain):
S. 745. A bill to reauthorize the State Criminal Alien Assistance
Program, and for other purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Mr. FLAKE. Mr. President, border security is one of the Federal
Government's most important responsibilities, and the Federal
Government has no better partners than local law enforcement agencies
from border communities like those in my home State of Arizona. These
officers and deputies serve on the front lines. They provide critical
assistance to the missions of Federal agencies.
Unfortunately, these efforts are expensive and the locals end up
picking up most of the tab. For example, local law enforcement agencies
hold those facing immigration violations at county-operated jails, and
they provide medical care for the undocumented inmates while they are
in custody. In providing these services, Arizona's counties have
incurred more than $310 million in costs associated with criminal
undocumented immigrants since 2009. That is $310 million since 2009.
Despite these enormous costs, the Federal Government has left many
local jurisdictions to shoulder the burdens of illegal immigration on
their own. This is particularly frustrating when so many of our local
law enforcement agencies are already struggling to carry out basic
duties on overstretched budgets.
I hope we can all look forward to a time when we have the appropriate
resources for securing the border, the means for those seeking to fill
the needs of our economy to enter the country legally, a remedy for
those who are here already illegally, and also a way for employers to
ensure that those whom they hire are legally present.
These critical steps toward solving our immigration problems will
require Congress to act. However, in the meantime, we can't continue to
allow the Federal Government to pass off immigration responsibilities
onto cash-strapped local agencies.
That is why I wish today to introduce a bill to reauthorize and
reform the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, better known as
SCAAP. This bill is cosponsored by my friend and colleague, John
McCain, and is supported by the Arizona Sheriffs Association.
SCAAP is a Federal program that reimburses State, local, and Tribal
law enforcement for the costs associated with incarcerating and caring
for criminal undocumented immigrants while in custody.
To ensure that local law enforcement receives sufficient
reimbursement under SCAAP, my bill would make some commonsense reforms
under the program. The bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality
Act to reauthorize SCAAP through fiscal year 2021. Reauthorizing this
program will provide local law enforcement agencies in Arizona and
across the country with the certainty that any costs incurred from
incarcerating criminal immigrants will be covered by Federal
reimbursements.
Our State, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies are committed
to partnering with the Federal Government on immigration enforcement.
But that partnership can't succeed unless the Federal Government
provides the necessary reimbursements for those services.
As Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels said:
Arizona's counties continue to struggle under the fiscal
strain of anemic growth in rural areas and cost-shifts from
the State of Arizona. Housing criminal aliens without federal
assistance diverts needed resources away from our
communities' public safety priorities.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this letter from the
Arizona Sheriffs Association in support of my bill to reauthorize SCAAP
be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Arizona Sheriffs Association,
March 15, 2017.
Re State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP)
Reauthorization.
Hon. Jeff Flake,
U.S. Senator, Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Flake: On behalf of a majority of the Arizona
Sheriffs Association, I would like to express support for
Congress's proposed reauthorization of the State Criminal
Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP).
County sheriffs maintain the shared responsibility of
enforcing Arizona's criminal laws. We also serve as the
keeper of Arizona's county jails, including paying for the
cost of medical care for inmates. While the federal
government continues to address the problem of illegal
immigration, Arizona's jails incarcerate undocumented
immigrants who have committed state and local violations,
incurring significant costs in custody and care of these
inmates, including medical costs. SCAAP provides critical
dollars to Arizona's counties that help pay for the cost of
housing and caring for these inmates while they are in our
custody.
Arizona's counties continue to struggle under the fiscal
strain of anemic growth in rural areas and cost-shifts from
the State of Arizona. Housing criminal aliens without federal
assistance diverts needed resources away from our
communities' public safety priorities. We understand that
federal dollars cannot fully supplant state costs for these
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inmates. However, any financial assistance the federal
government can appropriate to help pay for the costs of
caring for these inmates will allow Arizona's sheriffs to
concentrate on other important priorities, such as drug
interdiction and search and rescue.
Since 2009, Arizona's counties have absorbed more than $310
million in costs. A SCAAP reauthorization that includes
reimbursement for medical costs would provide vital financial
resources to Arizona's sheriffs, allowing us to better serve
the public safety needs of our counties.
That's why on behalf of Arizona's county sheriffs, I write
to express support for the reauthorization of the State
Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP). We encourage
Congress to pass the measure and for President Trump to sign
it if it reaches his desk.
Sincerely,
Mark Dannels,
Cochise County Sheriff,
President, Arizona Sheriffs Association.
Mr. FLAKE. Mr. President, the SCAAP program is the foundation of the
immigration partnership between local law enforcement and the Federal
Government for keeping our communities safe. I urge all of my
colleagues to support this legislation to reauthorize and reform the
SCAAP program.
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