Column from U.S. Senator Russ Feingold Supporting Wisconsin Law Enforcement February 20, 2008 Day in and day out, people in Wisconsin’s communities depend on local law enforcement to keep our streets safe, and to respond in an emergency. Wisconsin counts on our outstanding law enforcement officers, and, in turn, those officers should be able to count on the federal government to give them the support they need to do their all-important work. The federal government has a responsibility to provide the tools, technology, and training that our nation’s law enforcement officers need to protect our communities. Yet, year after year, critical law enforcement programs are threatened with deep funding cuts, including the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program. Byrne Justice Assistance Grants, a vital grant program for state and local law enforcement, suffered severe cutbacks in the President’s budget proposal this year. Byrne grants have assisted the creation of drug task forces, drug courts, drug education and prevention programs, and many other efforts to reduce drug abuse and prosecute drug offenders. The president’s proposed budget eliminates specific funding for this critical program entirely. I have fought these cuts, year after year, because when I talk to law enforcement officials in Wisconsin about what the federal government can do to help them better protect Wisconsin communities, supporting Byrne grants is at the top of the list. Lately, I have been hearing from Wisconsin law enforcement officials about the increase in violent crimes in their communities. Indeed, according to the 2006 FBI Uniform Crime Report, violent crime in Wisconsin increased by a staggering 18.1 percent and, unfortunately, the recently released preliminary statistics for 2007 indicate that these rates have continued to rise in both Milwaukee and Green Bay. Cuts to the Byrne program would undermine law enforcement’s efforts to fight violent crime. I’m also concerned that proposed cuts to the COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) program, a federal program that is instrumental in providing funding to train new officers and purchase crime-fighting technologies, could have the same effect. Under the President’s new budget proposal, both the Byrne program and the COPS programs are under threat. Congress has authorized spending for these programs at a combined total of more than $2 billion, but the President proposed that they be replaced with new, untested programs that add up to only $400 million – and under the President’s proposal that money would also have to fund numerous other initiatives beyond the scope of the current Byrne and COPS programs. We’ve been down this road with the Administration before. This is not the first time the president has proposed a complete elimination of the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, but Congress has rightly rejected these efforts and provided funding to the program – although I was disappointed that more was not appropriated to this critical program for 2008. Last year’s presidential budget also proposed funding the COPS program at only $32 million, but my colleagues and I fought back to secure $587 million for the program. This year, I’m once again working with my colleagues to keep the Byrne Grant program going, and to support the COPS Program. I hope that Senators from both parties will come together to ensure we do everything possible to provide the resources law enforcement agencies need to keep our communities safe.