Dianne Feinstein: “SCAAP is a vital program to the States and localities to reimburse them for the costs associated with housing…”

“SCAAP is a vital program to the States and localities to reimburse them for the costs associated with housing undocumented criminal aliens. Funding for SCAAP is authorized in the amount of $950 million for each of the fiscal years 2008 through 2011, but we have never fully funded SCAAP. Instead we have paid only pennies on the dollar for these costs. In my home State of California, there are currently over 20,000 criminal alien inmates. It costs California approximately $715 million per year to house these aliens. In 2007, Congress appropriated $399 million for SCAAP. In this budget resolution, SCAAP is funded at $407 million. The real problem here is that the problem of illegal immigration is a Federal responsibility. Yet the Federal Government consistently shifts the costs for enforcing immigration laws onto our States. This cost-shifting is not fair to State governments. My amendment makes SCAAP funding whole by providing an additional $543 million to this program.”