John Rutherford: “I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. The idea that we are going to send civilians to do a law enforcement officer's job…”

“I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. The idea that we are going to send civilians to do a law enforcement officer's job in quelling a dangerous, volatile situation is bad business. The VICTIM Act does nothing. There is nothing new in the VICTIM Act. All it does is add to the programs that already exist in DOJ--not one single new idea in the VICTIM Act. The Break the Cycle of Violence Act, first of all, comes with a very hefty price tag, $6.5 billion, but all that money goes to public health government bureaucrats, not law enforcement. Listen, our job in Congress is to provide effective assistance to our law enforcement men and women. These three acts do not do that. They simply do not achieve that goal. I am glad, however, that my colleagues have finally decided that defunding the police is not a good idea, but I wish they would look at the appropriation bills where they are basically federally defunding law enforcement because they are putting all of these strings attached to all of our DOJ grants that go to small-, medium-, and large-sized agencies. They are never going to be able to meet those standards, never going to be able to meet all of those standards. So, basically, we just federally defunded State and local law enforcement if that passes. I hope to God it doesn't. Instead of these misguided policies, let's work together on some solutions. Help us hire and retain some of the best and brightest officers that we have.…”