Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, this weekend the President of the United States said, obviously referring to this bill, H.R. 728, that he would oppose, perhaps veto, any bill that would jeopardize the number of police officers that would have been provided to communities under the bill that was passed last year. I have two responses. First of all, Mr. Chairman, I want to say that this bill could provide even more police officers than were provided in the last crime bill. The fact of the matter is that this bill offers total flexibility between police programs and prevention programs to the communities, unlike the highly structured bill that was passed last year. If the issue is police officers, then communities are free to use all of the money under H.R. 728 for the sole purpose of hiring police officers. This will generate more police officers than could ever be provided under the bill that we passed last year. I think the real issue, and this is my second point, is not the number of police officers; it is micromanagement.”