Bart Stupak: “If my colleague would be so kind, and I appreciate our colleague, the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne), being down…”

“If my colleague would be so kind, and I appreciate our colleague, the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne), being down here to work with us on this issue. These local teams understand they are not just getting Federal money, and the Federal Government is funding the whole thing. Whether it is Presque County or the little city of Escanaba, where I was a police officer, or whether it is the big city of Detroit, the local units of government must put in money. It is a matching grant program. They have to put in resources. So it is a unified effort between local, county, and State police working together, and the seed money is really the Federal Government. Without the seed money, there is no incentive or urging of the county board of commissioners to fund an officer to work on the undercover task force team, because there will not be any. So it is always a fight every year to keep these teams together and keep them properly funded and staffed with personnel. And if we lose the Federal funding, a 45 percent reduction, the problems that I am sure the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) and I have spoken about will only get 45 percent worse within the year. So I appreciate the gentleman's leadership and the Members now with us.”