Political Quotes

“Let me first just thank the chairman and the ranking member for their tremendous effort in connection with this bill. As well, I thank the chairman for his distinguished service and work as it relates to the issue of gun violence prevention, to which this amendment relates. In order to address the growing problem of youth gang violence, this amendment sets a minimum allocation amount with respect to funds issued under the Department of Justice's authority to make public safety and community policing grants. It would do so by requiring that no less than $5 million of funding for COPS grants be used ``to establish and implement innovative programs to increase and enhance proactive crime control and prevention programs involving law enforcement officers and young persons in the community.'' This category is presently one of 17 uses of grant amounts authorized under law. However, there is no funding minimum set in law to ensure that these program grants are being allocated to address youth violence. With the growing amount of gang activity that involves young people throughout our country, funding in this particular area is essential. There are currently at least 1.4 million criminal street gang members and 33,000 street gangs in the United States. This represents a 40 percent increase since 2009. Much of this rapid expansion of criminal street gang activity is caused by the active recruitment of juveniles.…”