Political Quotes

“I intend to withdraw this amendment at the end of my presentation and the discussion. I want to first thank Ranking Member Fattah for his tremendous leadership on the subcommittee and talk about what this amendment would have done, which of course would have increased funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services program, better known as COPS, to the funding level in the President's fiscal year 2013 budget, which is $257 million. But I want to thank Congressman Fattah for his leadership because we have talked, and hopefully as this bill moves forward, we can look at what we can do in conference to get closer to this level. Unfortunately, the COPS hiring program was funded at only $40 million in the fiscal year 2013 bill, which is $217 million--76 percent actually--below the President's request. So while we were able to restore some of that critically needed funding with the amendment that was passed last night, it is totally insufficient. It is insufficient because of the fact that the highly successful COPS hiring program is vital to increasing the numbers of community police officers on our streets. Not only will we have fewer officers protecting our citizens now, but these cuts will result in officers with less training who are less prepared to address the violent crimes threatening our community. We simply can't afford to let that happen. Oakland, my hometown, and so many communities across this country are already struggling to contain violent crime.…”