Political Quotes

“The Fiscal Year 2015 Commerce-Justice- Science bill before us today provides good funding levels for important programs to support public safety, such as Byrne Justice Assistance Grants and Violence Against Women Act services. I thank Chairman Wolf for working with me to include report language directing the FBI to publish annual reports on the types of records submitted by each State and Federal agency to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. It is only as useful as the information it includes, and these reports will help improve the system. Chairman Wolf and Ranking Member Fattah should be commended for fully funding the Office of Science and Technology Policy, including its working group on Neuroscience, as well as an increase of $21.5 million for National Science Foundation's BRAIN Initiative. Investments in research and development grow our economy and help to ensure that future scientific breakthroughs happen in American labs, not those overseas. In addition, I am extremely pleased that this bill will provide $125 million for the DNA Initiative, as well as $36 million for a new community backlog reduction program to process sexual assault kits which, currently, are often untested for years--sometimes decades--when information contained in these kits could help put violent criminals behind bars.…”