-Rahall Fighting for Survival of Vital Program-

 U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) is fighting for the COPS program, which provides funding to put more police officers on the street. With the ongoing war on terror, the COPS program has been instrumental in securing our homeland and making possible attacks harder for terrorists. Putting more cops on the street also helps reduce other problems, such as the growing methamphetamine use in West Virginia. It is also a program that the Administration is trying to gut in its budget for 2006 by eliminating funding for COPS' hiring initiatives.

"If this Administration gets its way and cuts funding for the hiring initiatives of COPS, the program will not be able to put more new officers on the streets," said Rahall. "Our local officers are the front line in our fight against methamphetamine and other drugs. We need officers on the street to help stop the spread of these drugs and help protect our neighborhoods."

"In today's America drugs are not our only problem, with a constant threat warning from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, West Virginians know that they themselves could be prone to a terrorist attack and everyone who lives in our mountains and valleys should be prepared to spot trouble when they see it," Rahall said. "Of course, more cops on the streets and better technologies for our courageous police officers would make everybody safer. That is why I don't understand why this Administration continues to warn us of possible attacks while it insists on gutting a program, the COPS program, which specifically confronts these threats by putting more police officers on streets."

This year the Administration zeroed out funding for the hiring component of the COPS program. Rahall joined many of his colleagues in urging appropriators to provide at least $407 million for the hiring component and thus keeping the program intact for 2006.

Since 1994, over $11 million dollars in COPS grants have gone to the Third District of West Virginia, the district Congressman Rahall represents. This amount has allowed communities in Southern West Virginia fund a total of 210 additional police officers and sheriffs deputies. $552,960 has specifically been awarded for crime-fighting technologies that give officers an advantage in fighting a more importantly preventing crime in Southern West Virginia.

"The COPS program is America's first line of defense spending," Rahall said. "The Administration's reasoning has sent billions to Iraq, and some of that money is putting cops on streets in Iraq, but at the same time, the same Administration wants to slash our first line of defense, our local police. We need these cops on our streets to protect West Virginians from the spread of drugs, possible terrorist attacks and other daily problems that arise."

The Administration has tried many times over the past few years to cut the COPS program. Rahall has pledged to defend the program and fight for its survival.