Maurice Hinchey: “Mr. Chairman, we should be a bit consistent in our positions in this organization, and I would like to quote from last…”

“Mr. Chairman, we should be a bit consistent in our positions in this organization, and I would like to quote from last year's debate on the crime bill: If they say to me in the name of fighting crime ``Will I stand a $2 billion check to cities, many of which have destructive bureaucracies, to let the local politicians build a bigger machine with more patronage?'' My answer is no. That was then the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Gingrich], now Speaker Gingrich, on the issue of broad grants of authority without effective controls from the Federal Government. The point is, Mr. Chairman, we need more police, and, if we do not specify that the money will be spent on police, it will be spent as it was under LEAA, on armored tank carriers, on dual-engine planes for local bureaucrats. I trust my communities, and they have done darn well under the President's plan. Twenty-four police officers are coming to work in my district that would not have been there without President Clinton's plan. I did not support the crime bill last year, but I said the 100,000 police I do, and I say to my colleagues, If you want to preserve that promise, if we want to enhance that promise, we have to defeat this move by the Republicans to gut the 100,000 new police officers for America.”