Joe Biden: “I am going to, at the end of my comments, introduce an amendment that restores full funding for the 150 function, the…”

“I am going to, at the end of my comments, introduce an amendment that restores full funding for the 150 function, the State Department budget, cosponsored by Senators Feinstein, Smith, Durbin, Sununu, Dodd, Martinez, Menendez, Snowe, Kerry, Collins, Levin, Voinovich, Obama, Corker, Leahy, and Hagel. What I rise to speak to now is an amendment already at the desk, amendment No. 4164. That amendment will add $551 million to the $599 million already provided in the budget resolution for the COPS Program for a total funding of $1.15 billion. I thank the Budget Committee for allocating the $599 million to the COPS Program in this resolution. That is a significant increase from the President's priorities. In fact, for the first time since its inception in 1994, the President's budget proposes to eliminate the COPS Program entirely. I am offering my amendment to get us closer to full funding of the level of $1.15 billion that proved successful in driving down crime in the 1990s. I realize I am a broken record on this issue. Each year my colleagues hear me come down and talk about the COPS Program, the fact that we have to fully fund the program. Why am I such an advocate for the COPS Program? Mostly because I wrote the original legislation.”