[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15868-15869]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                THE TREASURY AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT BILL

  Mr. CAMPBELL. Madam President, I came to the floor to tell my 
colleagues my disappointment that we are not able to move forward with 
the Treasury and general government bill. It is certainly not a perfect 
bill, but it is a darn good bill. As chairman of the subcommittee, I 
can say that we worked very hard on that. I remind my friends that we 
only have about 28 working days left--not much to complete the whole 
appropriations process, which we are required to do by law. That gets 
us in trouble.
  Two years ago, we didn't have the opportunity to complete the 
Treasury bill, and it ended up in what is commonly referred to as the 
omnibus bill. People in the Senate understand what that is, but to the 
millions of Americans who watch these proceedings, the omnibus bill is, 
in one word, a mess. It is that bill where we stick everything in at 
the end that we didn't have time to finish. We end up with a bill a 
foot thick and weighs 30 pounds, with 3,000 to 5,000 pages. Nobody in 
this body can read it all because we don't have the time before we have 
to vote on it. That is how we get in trouble. We vote to pass it 
through as a last-minute emergency. When we go home, people say: Why 
did you vote to give money to that frivolous thing on page 2,403? And 
we don't even know why we voted for it, which is why it is so important 
to get the bills through one by one.
  Let me mention a little bit about the Treasury and general government 
bill as it is going to come to the floor, if we can get an agreement. I 
don't think there is anybody in this body who doesn't know that we have 
a sieve, not a border, between the U.S. and Canada and the U.S. and 
Mexico. Our customs people are severely understaffed and underfunded. 
If you want to stop drugs at the border, the money to do that is in 
this bill. We need to do that. The High Intensity Drug Trafficking 
Areas we started about 8 years ago expanded to about 44 States and many 
cities. That is the agency that coordinates reduction of drug use and 
trafficking

[[Page 15869]]

among our local law enforcement, State law enforcement, and Federal law 
enforcement.
  If you want to reduce drug trafficking, the money is in this bill. We 
also have upkeep and maintenance for Federal buildings. A number of 
them nationwide are in disrepair, as everybody knows. We have to put 
money into making sure the buildings are sound, safe, and fireproof. We 
are not doing that very well. The money to do that is in this bill, 
too. If you want to reduce drug violence, the money to do that is in 
this bill. We know this is a very important year for the Secret 
Service. They are being asked to do more in an election year, with 
limited resources. The money to do that is also in this bill.
  In fact, as all of us know, there are many, many requests by 
individual Senators in all of these bills. I was going through the list 
on our bill. We have 13 pages of requests by individual Senators for 
money in this bill. It is rather surprising to me that some of the 
Senators who are opposing bringing this bill to the floor are the ones 
who asked for money to be put in the bill in the first place. It is 
similar to when we consider the so-called pay raise and people demagog 
it, the thing passes, and they quietly pocket the money and leave. We 
have the same situation with this bill. A lot of people have very 
important programs in this bill. Again, there are 13 pages of things 
Senators want in this bill.
  Also, Mr. President, I would like to take a few minutes to talk about 
a program which I believe deserves the support of the Senate--the Gang 
Resistance Education and Training or GREAT Program. GREAT is 
administered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, in 
partnership with State and local law enforcement.
  Unfortunately, gang activity has increased in our country in recent 
years. ATF has developed a program to give our children the tools they 
need to be able to resist the temptation to belong to a gang.
  The GREAT program is eight years old, and has grown from a pilot 
program in Arizona to classrooms all over the United States--and in 
Puerto Rico, Canada, and overseas military bases. ATF estimates that 
about 2 million students have received GREAT training.
  GREAT was designed to provide gang prevention and antiviolence 
instruction to children in a classroom setting. ATF trains local law 
enforcement officers to teach these classes, and provides grants to 
their offices to help pay for their time.
  This program is having a positive effect on student activities and 
behaviors, and is deterring them from involvement in gangs. A side 
benefit is that the graduates seem to be doing a better job of 
communicating with their parents and teachers, and getting better 
grades.
  For the third year in a row, the Administration is requesting only 10 
million dollars for grants for the GREAT program. For the last two 
years, Congress felt that wasn't enough to fund the many requests for 
help from State and local law enforcement and provided 13 million 
dollars for GREAT grants. 10 million dollars still isn't enough. I urge 
my colleagues to support the effort of the Committee to again provide 
13 million dollars for grants to State and local law enforcement for 
this worthwhile and effective program.
  I hope my colleagues will reach some consensus and allow us to move 
forward. It is an extremely important bill, and I certainly urge our 
leadership to try to get this to the floor.
  With that, I yield the floor.

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