Tom Price: “I would rise, Mr. Speaker, to say that all of us obviously support police officers on the street. But there are some…”

“I would rise, Mr. Speaker, to say that all of us obviously support police officers on the street. But there are some legitimate concerns about this bill and others that are brought to the floor. One that I would point out on this bill is that we attempt to find some objective information about the programs that we put in place here at the Federal level. The Office of Management and Budget has a program called Program Assessment Rating Tool which attempts to determine the effectiveness of what we do here on the floor, and their grade for this COPS Program is ``Not performing, results not demonstrated'' in the latest review. That is not to say that we don't support cops on the street, police on the street, but it is important to appreciate that there are some legitimate concerns about the program. Another concern I have is that one of our House rules, XIII section 3(d)(1) says that all committee reports must contain a statement citing the specific powers granted to the Congress in the Constitution to enact the law proposed by the bill or joint resolution. In fact, in this bill being brought to the floor, there is no such statement available from the committee. So I think there are legitimate concerns, Mr. Speaker, and I ask my colleagues to review those.”