James Traficant: “since I have come here, I have seen what I believe to be a shortfall in the way we treat our Capitol Police, and I do…”

“since I have come here, I have seen what I believe to be a shortfall in the way we treat our Capitol Police, and I do not think there is any Member that does not support our Capitol Police. Number one, we never see any headlines, and that is the biggest compliment we can pay them, and they do guard and secure our Nation's treasures as well as our human resources. In that regard, Mr. Chairman, they are not paid at a commensurate level of other law enforcement entities in our Federal Government, number one, and, number two, after the extreme background checks and training and all the money we put into them, they are prime targets to be recruited by other surrounding law enforcement agencies because they are, in fact, some of the world's finest and the Nation's finest. Mr. Chairman, I have sponsored legislation to bring them up to par with some of these other law enforcement entities, and that would have required a 7 percent increase in their compensation. I want to thank and compliment the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh) and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano) who did give and include a 3 percent raise. But that still falls $5 million short of compensating our police at a level commensurate with other similar types of enforcement entities.”