[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 14, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H1573-H1576]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROJECT SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS GRANT PROGRAM AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2017
Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 3249) to authorize the Project Safe Neighborhoods Grant Program,
and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 3249
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 ``Project Safe Neighborhoods
Grant Program Authorization Act of 2017''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
For the purposes of this Act--
(1) the term ``criminal street gangs'' has the meaning
given such term in section 521 of title 18, United States
Code;
(2) the term ``gang crime'' means a felony or misdemeanor
crime, under State or Federal law, committed by one or more
persons who are a member of, or directly affiliated with, a
criminal street gang;
(3) the term ``transnational organized crime group'' has
the meaning given such term in section 36(k)(6) of the State
Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C.
2708(k)(6));
(4) the term ``transnational organized crime'' has the
meaning given such term in section 36(k)(5) of the State
Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C.
2708(k)(5)); and
(5) the term ``firearms offenses'' means an offense under
section 922 or 924 of title 18, United States Code.
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT.
The Attorney General of the United States is authorized to
establish and carry out a program, to be known as the
``Project Safe Neighborhoods Block Grant Program'' or, in
this Act, as the ``Program'', within the Office of Justice
Programs at the Department of Justice.
SEC. 4. PURPOSE.
The purpose of the Project Safe Neighborhoods Block Grant
Program is to foster and improve existing partnerships
between Federal, State, and local agencies, including the
United States Attorney in each Federal judicial district, to
create safer neighborhoods through sustained reductions in
violent crimes by--
(1) developing and executing strategic plans to assist law
enforcement agencies in combating gang crimes, including the
enforcement of gun laws and drug interdiction; and
(2) developing intervention and prevention initiatives,
including juvenile justice projects and activities which may
include street-level outreach, conflict mediation, and the
changing of community norms, in order to reduce violence.
SEC. 5. RULES AND REGULATIONS.
(a) In General.--The Attorney General shall, not later than
60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, make rules
to create, carry out, and administer the Program in
accordance with this section.
(b) Funds To Be Directed to Local Control.--Amounts made
available as grants under the Program shall be, to the
greatest extent practicable, locally controlled to address
problems that are identified locally
(c) Regional Gang Task Forces.--30 percent of the amounts
made available as grants under the Program each fiscal year
shall be granted to established Regional Gang Task Forces in
regions experiencing a significant or increased presence of,
or high levels of activity from, transnational organized
crime groups posing threats to community safety in terms of
violent crime, firearms offenses, human trafficking,
trafficking and distribution of illegal opioids and heroin,
and other crimes.
SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS; CONSOLIDATION OF
PROGRAMS.
(a) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized
to be appropriated for the Program under this Act $50,000,000
for each of fiscal years 2019 through 2021.
(b) Consolidation of Programs.--For each of fiscal years
2019 through 2023, no funds are authorized to be separately
appropriated to the Department of Justice Office of Justice
Programs for--
(1) competitive and evidence-based programs to reduce gun
crime and gang violence;
(2) an Edward Byrne Memorial criminal justice innovation
program;
(3) community-based violence prevention initiatives; or
(4) gang and youth violence education, prevention and
intervention, and related activities.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Issa) and the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.
[[Page H1574]]
General Leave
Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks
and include extraneous material on H.R. 3249, currently under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the
gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. Comstock), the author of the bill.
Mrs. COMSTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R.
3249, the Project Safe Neighborhoods Grant Program Authorization Act of
2017.
I would like to thank Chairman Goodlatte and the entire Judiciary
Committee for their efforts on this legislation and working through the
process to bring this to the floor.
I wanted to set out some recent headlines from the in-depth reporting
by The Washington Post on the rise of the MS-13 gang problem in the
Washington metropolitan area, which includes Maryland, D.C., and
Virginia, and why this legislation is needed.
``MS-13 is `taking over the school,' one teen warned before she was
killed.''
``She told the girl she'd see her in hell before stabbing her. Now,
she's guilty of an MS-13 murder.''
``'People here live in fear': MS-13 menaces a community 7 miles from
the White House.''
``Police: MS-13 members in Maryland stab man more than 100 times and
decapitate him.''
This is from my local paper, the Loudoun-Times Mirror:
``MS-13 gang members convicted in gruesome murder of a Leesburg
teenager.''
In this particular case in Leesburg, Virginia, the teenage boy,
Carlos Otero-Henriquez, was stabbed over 50 times and his body was
dumped in a quarry miles away in West Virginia.
The Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Tracy
Doherty-McCormick, had this to say after the murderers were convicted:
``The hallmark of MS-13 is extreme violence. This brutal kidnapping and
murder is a tragic reminder of the impact MS-13 has on communities here
in northern Virginia. My hope is that our efforts to investigate and
prosecute this case will send a clear message: Violence will be
aggressively prosecuted.''
This, and many of these other cases, are why we need the Project Safe
Neighborhoods Grant Program Authorization Act, which authorizes $50
million, but targets 30 percent being directed toward already-
established regional gang task forces.
As we know, MS-13 is a transnational gang that has been found not
only here in the Washington metropolitan region, but in Los Angeles,
Long Island, Houston, and other cities throughout the country.
The Washington Post has highlighted how the 2014 border surge
contributed to the MS-13 gang problem writing: ``The violent street
gang is on the rise in the United States, fueled, in part, by the surge
in unaccompanied minors.''
The unaccompanied minors, who often fled their native country to get
away from the gangs, arrive here only to find themselves targeted by
those very same gang members they were fleeing.
MS-13 preys upon these youngsters in their own community--and let me
emphasize, it is their own community that they are victimizing--who may
not have much of a family structure, and, in effect, MS-13 tries to
become their family or threaten them with death if they don't.
Last summer, when I went on a ride-along with our Northern Virginia
Regional Task Force, I was able to see their good work right in front
of us. There was a young man on the sidewalk of Sterling Boulevard in
Sterling, Virginia, just miles from here. The gang task force noticed
him and turned around and decided to stop him and see what he was up
to. With years of experience, the officers knew the MS-13 indicators.
The boy looked about 16 years old, from what I could tell, but it
turned out he was actually a 22-year-old gang member. He was covered in
MS-13 gang tattoos. When he lifted up his shirt when they asked him to
do so, he showed all of the particular signs of MS-13, from his head to
all over his feet.
It turns out he had been jailed in El Salvador for murder when he was
16 and had been deported from the United States twice for engaging in
violent crime.
As it turns out now, when they come to the border, we don't have the
law to be able to stop them. Fortunately, this House did pass a law
back in the fall, on a bipartisan basis--it is over in the Senate now--
to be able to stop these gang members from getting in the country in
the first place and being able to deport them quicker. But in the
meantime, we need to increase the work and the support for these
regional gang task forces.
{time} 1545
We also saw the technology they use. They can use something along the
lines of an iPad or an iPhone where they put this gang member's
fingerprint on there and immediately it comes to light, as shown in the
international records, that he was a murderer and that he had been in
jail. But they need more of those resources. They only had two of those
that they were able to use, and they said every one of their cars needs
that kind of resource.
That same night that we were on the ride-along, three other suspected
MS-13 gang members were also picked up. This isn't an aberration.
At a town festival in Herndon, Virginia, in my district, the Northern
Virginia Regional Gang Task Force told us that they had identified an
estimated 200 to 300 suspected gang members who were milling about
while our children were getting popcorn, getting on the rides, and
there were people coming together to have a hotdog or a hamburger in a
community festival.
According to the Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force, an MS-13
gang member put a hit out on his own brother because he refused to join
the organization. Fortunately, because of the good, intensive work of
the Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force, they spared this young
man from being killed by his own brother.
That is why we need to have these resources that we are voting on
today. We need to help on a Federal level.
The community policing involved with the Northern Virginia Regional
Gang Task Force includes officers who speak Spanish, understand the
gang culture, and help get the kids out of this. They get involved in
the education, getting them into the schools. They understand where
they are trying to target these young people, and they are familiar
with their communities and have developed very good relationships with
these communities.
ICE officials complement these efforts by removing the dangerous gang
members once identified and allowing the task force to work in our
highest risk schools and communities to prevent gang violence.
The Project Safe Neighborhoods Grant Program Authorization Act would
direct this additional Federal funding toward these gang task forces so
that our gang task forces--which are comprised in my area of 13 local,
State, and Federal law enforcement agencies--can really make the best
antigang efforts in this three-pronged approach that they engage in:
education, intervention and prevention, and enforcement.
Mr. Speaker, I have seen firsthand the good work these gang task
forces can do to remove these gang threats from our community, so I
urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I thank you for the
opportunity to speak to this.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, to the distinguished manager and to the author of this
legislation, there is certainly room for legislation that speaks to the
needs of our children and speaks to those who obviously have joined
vicious and violent gangs even though of young ages.
I will always, however, reemphasize the message that, as we look at
these efforts, as I speak about my Juvenile Block Grant Antibullying
and Prevention Act, legislation that I would like to see go through the
Judiciary Committee, we must be reminded that, in order to continue to
be safe, this Congress cannot ignore debate and passage of gun safety
legislation.
Guns kill. AR-15s kill. The lack of raising the age from 18 to 21 for
guns
[[Page H1575]]
hurts our children. Not having universal background checks hurts our
children. But at the same time, we must find ways to stem the tide of
gangs, and there are many gangs throughout the Nation.
Just speaking with my law enforcement, the gang names that came to me
were not just MS-13. We will find gangs in our particular jurisdictions
that have many names. But whatever their names, their behavior is
dastardly and it is injurious, and if we can find ways to keep our
neighborhood safe, as H.R. 3249 intends to do, the Project Safe
Neighborhoods Grant Program Authorization Act of 2017, which would
provide additional resources to help local jurisdictions prevent and
fight crime in their communities, then we should stand together to do
so.
The bill would authorize the Attorney General to establish and
implement a program to be known as the Project Safe Neighborhoods Block
Program within the Office of Justice Programs at the Department of
Justice, thereby providing a formal authorization for the Project Safe
Neighborhoods program currently implemented by DOJ. A portion of the
funding awards under the program would be allocated to fighting gang-
related crime.
While I support authorizing this program, I would like to highlight
two concerns. The first is the Juvenile Block Grant Antibullying and
Prevention Act, which would have reauthorized the juvenile block grants
which would go to communities for a variety of reasons. That has been
stalled in the Judiciary Committee under the pretense of not having an
offset. And I see that this particular legislation does have,
seemingly, a $70 million a year authorization without an offset.
So I think we should work together, and as I support this
legislation, I think we should support other legislative initiatives
that can really intervene. It is clear that the perpetrator in Florida,
there is some evidence, some newspaper reporting, that this individual
was bullied and had a very difficult life. We see that that is
certainly a reason that young people become gang members.
So as we look to supporting this legislation, I think that we should
look to broaden our support and work on the whole idea of steering our
children away from the idea of gangs, guns, and violence.
I would hope, first, a substantial portion of the funding of this
bill will be dedicated to antigang task forces. I support preventing
and fighting crime no matter who the perpetrator may be. But I also
want to make sure that we look holistically at dealing with young
people and that we have alternatives for them, which block-granting
does in giving alternatives to communities to direct young people in
other directions other than gangs.
We must be vigilant in conducting oversight, also, of the use of
program funds and in protecting those program funds so that they can be
utilized for authorization of other efforts to help our young people.
Let me also indicate that this program should be one facet of working
with young people. The program will be one facet of DOJ's efforts to
address gun and gang violence at the local, State, and Tribal levels.
The Juvenile Accountability Block Grants, which provide other funds
for a myriad of activities in our local communities, we should view it
from the holistic perspective and as an effort to supplement but not
supplant alternatives that may employ different but yet still effective
approaches, which I am speaking of through the Juvenile Accountability
Block Grants program. None of the funding prohibitions would serve the
interest of public safety.
For instance, the bill would eliminate the Byrne Criminal Justice
Innovation Program, which, when implemented, helps local governments
develop crime reduction strategies to address crime in hotspots that
generate a significant amount of crime within larger communities or
jurisdictions.
The Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Program is a community-based
strategy that aims to prevent and control violent crime, drug abuse,
and gang activity in high-crime neighborhoods by providing funding to
support partnerships between law enforcement agencies and community-
based organizations that balance targeted enforcement with prevention,
intervention, and neighborhood restoration services. If you ask your
local police, many of them will tout the Byrne program as being very
successful.
In the past, OJP has coordinated the efforts of this program with
related efforts to promote neighborhood revitalization by the
Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of
Education. We see no reason to eliminate the possibility of funding for
this program which is very helpful.
So along with the Juvenile Accountability Block Grants program and
many others, I believe this legislation can be enhanced. I hope that as
we make our way through the legislative process, we will not only work
with H.R. 3249, but we will also work with other legislation that will
holistically help the crime situation in our Nation and secure young
people as they desire to be secured and, particularly, work on gun
violence, which is severe in many of our communities.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close. I reserve the balance
of my time.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
In closing, again, I want to acknowledge the author of H.R. 3249 for
an important statement regarding gangs, and I would hope that we could
continue to work on these issues. For instance, the bill would
eliminate the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Program, and I hope
that we can restore that.
As well, I hope that we can work very closely on other legislative
initiatives that are going through the Judiciary Committee. A holistic
approach is the best approach. And then I hope that we can restore the
funding that is necessary for some of the programs that have been
eliminated because of this legislation. Good as it may be, it is
important to do a combination of efforts to deal with protecting
children and steering children away from these vile actions.
Mr. Speaker, I truly believe that there are programs dealing with
bullying and prevention of bullying that can complement the work that
is being done here and the Byrne program that has been utilized by the
Department of Housing and Urban Development, cleaning neighborhoods,
making neighborhoods safe. I can see it in my congressional district
and I can see it in other congressional districts, to come in and
combine with those resources. And then, of course, are the resources
that uplift our young people, steer them in the right direction and
provide alternative support systems for them.
As many people know, in years gone by, something that many people
found humorous was midnight basketball. Today I hear law enforcement
officers say: You know, that midnight basketball really worked so many
years ago.
We need to look at a collective approach to getting kids off the
street, making sure our children are safe, and that they don't find, as
their only relief, gangs, but they can also find clean, safe
neighborhoods and neighborhoods that are free of guns as the only tool
to settle their disputes.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman from Texas is quite right. This bill's
pay-for comes through consolidation of similar programs, and I think it
is important to briefly go over that.
Working with the Attorney General's Office, the author, Mrs.
Comstock, went to great lengths to find programs that are essentially
doing much the same thing in which, by consolidating, you pick up
efficiencies. I particularly note that item two in the bill, the pay-
for, the Edward Byrne Memorial criminal justice innovation program, is
but a small part of the overall so-called Byrne program.
Many of the things the gentlewoman from Texas cited are good and are
not being consolidated but, rather, a small amount. This targeted
approach with our limited funds allows those funds to go further; and
particularly as we look at community outreach, these funds, by being
consolidated, are part of a community outreach and will be used in
similar ways to the programs that they are taking from, but taking from
it, in this case, in a consolidated way.
[[Page H1576]]
So I want to thank a former staff member of the Oversight and
Government Reform Committee, the committee that deals with efficiency
in government, for looking through the details of these appropriated
funds and finding a way to bring them together to give both flexibility
and efficiency that I believe this will adhere to. It is the reason
that this is a bipartisan bill.
The reason that it is so widely accepted is that it has been narrowly
targeted. And although I share with the gentlewoman from Texas, my
friend from Houston, that in a perfect world we would be plussing-up
funds, if we are not able to do that at this time, I would support and
work with the gentlewoman any time to try to do something similar for
some of the areas of her concern.
Mr. Speaker, I urge passage, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Crawford). The question is on the motion
offered by the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) that the House
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3249, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________