Dianne Feinstein: “I rise with a number of my colleagues and the Chairman of the Commerce, Justice, State Subcommittee, the Senator from…”

“I rise with a number of my colleagues and the Chairman of the Commerce, Justice, State Subcommittee, the Senator from South Carolina, to discuss funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, popularly known as SCAAP. As the Senator knows, States and localities across the nation, especially those with high immigration populations, face extraordinary costs associated with incarcerating criminal aliens. The burden continues to grow, for high impact States like California, for example. In February 1997, there were 17,904 undocumented felons in the California correctional system with Immigration and Naturalization Service holds. By the end of February 2001, there were 20,937 illegal alien inmates in the system with INS holds. California taxpayers can expect to spend $571.2 million this year to cover these costs. Over the past few years, the SCAAP program has reimbursed roughly 33 percent of the costs incurred by State and local governments. Since 1997, the authorization level for SCAAP has been $650 million. Funding for the program peaked at $585 million in FY 1999, and dropped to $565 million in FY 2000. Given the rising costs associated with criminal alien incarceration, the legislation my colleagues and I had hoped that Congress would see fit to fully fund this important program at the authorized level of $650 million.”