Political Quotes

“I rise in support of H.R. 728. Last Saturday President Clinton in his weekly radio address came out strongly opposed to this bill, saying that it would do away with the commitment that he and Congress made on the 100,000 cops on the beat that were promised in last year's crime bill. Unfortunately, the President is sorely misinformed on how much money is available in his own crime bill, and I believe he ought to apologize to the American people for spreading such misinformation around. Let us look at the numbers in last year's crime bill and what is proposed in H.R. 728, and the American people will see that H.R. 728 has the potential of putting more cops on the beat than the crime bill that President Clinton signed into law last year. Last year's crime bill provides $8.8 billion for community policing over a 6-year period. That is $1.47 billion a year. If the President says that that will pay for 100,000 police on the beat, that means that there is an average Federal payment of $14,700 per police officer. The average cost of a police officer is about $70,000 a year, including the training and equipment expenses, as well as the expenses of hiring a new employee. That means that only about 21 percent of the total commitment of 100,000 cops on the beat will end up being funded by the Federal Government.”