Scott Garrett: “the budget of the United Nations currently stands at $3.7 billion. The contribution from the United States, or actually…”

“the budget of the United Nations currently stands at $3.7 billion. The contribution from the United States, or actually the contribution from the United States taxpayers, is almost a quarter of that, $439 million. The amendment that is before us deals with just less than 1/10 of 1 percent of that entire U.N. budget. Mr. Chairman, my amendment seeks to simply take that .6 percent of the U.N. budget from the U.S. assessments towards the U.N. and put those funds into a program that we have talked about earlier, the Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Grant Program. As we have talked previously on this floor, this is a law enforcement assistance grant program that works in partnership with Federal, State, and local governments with the objective of creating a safer community for all of us. It does that by awarding grants to States and local communities and counties and local governments to help improve their functioning of their criminal justice systems, and it does it with an emphasis on violent crime and serious offenders. What can this money be used for? It can go to provide for personnel, equipment, training, technical assistance, and information systems for more widespread apprehension, prosecution, adjudication, detention, and rehab of offenders who violate both State and local laws. Since September 11 this grant program has been a significant program for law enforcement.…”