Judd Gregg: “First off, let's remember we have dramatically increased the money in this bill by $2 billion which is going back to the…”

“First off, let's remember we have dramatically increased the money in this bill by $2 billion which is going back to the local police forces in this country. That is $2 billion. The Byrne program is a good program, but it is a program that buys lights and cars. It is a program that is used for basically the day-to-day operation of the police forces, and that makes sense when we can afford it. This bill is structured in a way so that we can stay at the seven-fifty level. We expect the Byrne money to come back into this out of conference. But as a practical matter, to get to the seven-fifty level, we thought it was more important to put $2 billion of new money into the police agencies where they needed it, which is in the area of supporting their efforts to fight terrorism.”