Jane Harman: “I want to join this very polite and bipartisan debate in favor of more technology spent on law enforcement, in this case…”

“I want to join this very polite and bipartisan debate in favor of more technology spent on law enforcement, in this case specifically to fight terrorism. I would commend the bill's sponsor for the plus-up in NIJ technology programs. I think that moves us in the right direction. I would point out to my colleagues that the NIJ now commits substantial funding to something that is very important: making defense technology available for law enforcement purposes. It has probably occurred to the sponsors of this bipartisan compromise amendment that there is much to learn from the defense sector that might impact positively on our fight against urban terrorism. Let me say that the gentleman from New York just talked about the disparity between funds spent on defense R&D, approximately $35 billion, with a B, versus funds spent on efforts for R&D in the law enforcement sector, which he pointed out are in the millions of dollars. I hope that we will share more of that $35 billion in defense R&D money, which I fully support, with the law enforcement effort.”