Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, today, I rise to urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5616, the DHS Basic Training Accreditation Improvement Act of 2021. Every year, DHS onboards thousands of new officers who all must successfully complete basic law enforcement training programs. As a former police chief with 27 years of law enforcement service, I have seen how training saves lives. Unfortunately, at DHS, several of the basic training programs tailored to component officers are not accredited. In some cases, programs have been unaccredited for several years. Unaccredited programs include: the U.S. Border Patrol Academy, the Customs and Border Protections' Field Operations Academy Officer Basic Training program, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' Officer Basic Training program. In 2019, the head of the Department's Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers testified before the Homeland Security Committee that accreditation is important because it ``assigns rigor to training processes'' and ``results in the best product.'' H.R. 5616 seeks to improve the quality of the training provided to all new DHS officers. It does this by requiring the Department to report to Congress on the accreditation status of each of its basic training programs.…”