Patrick Leahy: “as a former prosecutor I am a strong supporter of the Marshals Service. We have the Commerce, Justice, Science…”

“as a former prosecutor I am a strong supporter of the Marshals Service. We have the Commerce, Justice, Science appropriations bill to fund the U.S. Marshals Service, and there is already $25 million in this bill to support their important work, which is $11 million more than was requested by the President. The amendment offered by the Senator from Nevada has a lot of appeal. Who would not want to support additional funding for the U.S. Marshals Service, or for a whole lot of other programs, for that matter. Police, fire departments, hospitals, schools--the list is limitless. It is unfortunate that the Senator's amendment would be paid for by cutting $15 million in this supplemental bill, requested by the President, to fund international educational and cultural exchange programs. In other words, he reaches across subcommittees to a completely different budget from that which funds the Marshals Service. That is a mistake. It is a road we should not go down.”