George Miller: “the issue of crime, and especially juvenile crime, has understandably angered and outraged our Nation. Today, perhaps 60…”

“the issue of crime, and especially juvenile crime, has understandably angered and outraged our Nation. Today, perhaps 60 percent of violent crimes are committed by young people between the ages of 10 and 20 years old. For millions of these young people, the only social network and family structure they know are the urban gangs that deal drugs, foster crime, and slaughter each other in our Nation's streets. Today, we are considering H.R. 4034, the Urban Recreation and At Risk Youth Act, which was introduced as a means of providing young people with constructive, supportive alternatives to street life and gangs. We seek to build on an existing, effective, but undersupported program, not to create new mandates, new policies, or new administrative costs. The Urban Park and Recreation Recovery Program offers matching grants to cities to rehabilitate and repair parks, recreation centers, playing fields, and other facilities. Matching grants also are available for programs that use recreation as a tool to teach young people the kind of skills they need to build constructive, positive lives. When UPARR has been funded it has been enormously successful-- hundreds of parks, rec centers, pools, and other facilities that otherwise would have been unable to meet the needs of their neighborhoods or simply closed their doors have been at work in their communities.”