How are the allocations made, to have the $107 million, roughly, which is a very, very small part of the NIH budget?

These cuts will be very, very difficult to sustain, given the issues which that funding addresses.

I would emphasize that the increase in crime across the country, and especially juvenile crime, really underscores the need for those programs.

Why the repeated effort to eliminate that program when every time you do, both the House and Senate come back and insist on it?

Well, Madam Secretary, I can understand the problem of the backlog, especially when the funding for your Department is cut.

If the pie were a little bigger, we would be able to give more to your requests.

Well, we will continue to work with you, Madam Secretary. We have been for a long time. These are big, big problems. We want to do our best to try to solve them.

I am interested in how we get my colleagues to spend money for corrections.

There is a willingness to spend money for incarceration.

What should be the governmental response, either through the Veterans Administration of the Department of Defense?

I regret that I have to excuse myself. We are very heavily engaged right now with the U.S. Attorneys.

Do we have to be in the middle of the pandemic before the rules are issued?

The budget resolution does contain an increase this year of $1.3 billion and Senator Harkin and I added an amendment to increase the budget resolution for $2.2 billion more.

We will provide the kinds of resources you need to the maximum extent of our capabilities, which is now more limited than it used to be.

I share the concern about the budget. I know we live in an era of severe budget constraints.

These reentry programs and the legislation that is pending now on second chance, these, I think, are of the highest priority.

Well, it looks to me as if the rejection of that petition may have been decided by someone at a lesser level than the Secretary.

We are right in the middle of our new immigration bill, which is a very high priority for the President.