July 22, 1976
Page 23355
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the Senate has before it S. 2212, a bill to extend for 5¼ years the authority of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration — LEAA — to strengthen and improve law enforcement and criminal justice activities by providing financial and technical assistance to State and local governments. The bill also provides increased funding for high crime areas and seeks to improve the operations of the LEAA program.
S. 2212 extends the authorization for LEAA from July 1, 1976, through September 30, 1981, at a level of $250 million for the transition quarter, $1 billion for fiscal year 1977, and $1.1 billion for fiscal years 1978, 1979, 1980, and 1981. S. 2212 restructures the LEAA program to strengthen court planning and provides more emphasis on monitoring and evaluation of projects and programs.
Since Congress has already approved the LEAA appropriation for fiscal 1977 at a level of $753 million, an amount consistent with the first budget resolution, let me speak briefly on the relationship of this bill to the budget resolution and then turn to the need for the Federal Government to continue to assist State and local governments to control the alarming increase in crime.
The first budget resolution for fiscal 1977 sets budget authority at $3.4 billion and outlays at $3.5 billion for law enforcement and justice, one of the 17 functions of the budget. The regular 1977appropriation bills that significantly affect this function have already been enacted. These include an appropriation of $753 million for LEAA programs, some $247 million less than the level authorized by S. 2212. Taking account of these appropriation actions, the budget resolution targets for the law enforcement and justice function have been fully subscribed.
There are many potential demands for supplemental appropriations in this function, including additional funds for LEAA up to the amounts authorized by S. 2212, benefits for public safety officers and victims of crime, antitrust enforcement, and the judiciary. Supplemental appropriations for these programs pose a threat to the first budget resolution guidelines for this function, and would either have to come from amounts allocated to the Appropriations Committee for other programs or additional amounts would have to be provided in the second budget resolution. The Appropriations Committee will thus be called upon to exercise continued vigilance with regard to the budget totals. At this point in time, however, I would like to commend the Appropriations Committee for an effective job in cutting the bills but leaving the muscle in law enforcement and justice programs — including LEAA programs.
Citizens across the country expect no less. They do not want wasteful Federal programs, but they do want programs that will control crime. In cities, towns, and villages, large and small, citizens are fed up with ever rising crime rates. The people want something done about a problem that stalks every American wherever he or she goes. According to the latest uniform crime report, a serious crime is committed every 3 seconds, a larceny theft every 6 seconds. A forcible rape every 10 minutes, and a murder every 26 minutes.
With all of our knowledge, we still do not know precisely the causes or the means necessary to eradicate crime in a democratic society. Many attribute the rapid rise in crime to a changing and permissive society where standards and mores are much less strict than they were even a few years ago. Much of the violent crime plaguing our country today is committed by those between 10 and 20 years of age — an age group that had little effect on crime rates a generation ago. The state of our economy is undoubtedly also a major factor. Poverty and unemployment go hand-in-hand with high crime rates.
Congress has appropriated about $5.1 billion for LEAA during the last 8 fiscal years. It can be asked why crime continues to soar. We purposely did not create a Federal police force when we passed the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. That act declared in clear and unmistakeable terms that "crime is essentially a local problem that must be dealt with by State and local governments if it is to be controlled effectively." Federal grants and contributions to State and local governments under the LEAA program total 5 percent of the amounts spent by State and local governments for crime control and justice. The other 95 percent of the amounts spent for law enforcement must come from appropriations made by Stateand local jurisdictions.
Even so, there is an abundance of evidence from State and local officials that the LEAA program has had a positive impact on reducing crime from levels that might have been much greater had the program not been in operation.
In my State, LEAA moneys have been used to begin projects and programs that have significantly improved the overall quality of Maine's criminal justice system.
It was LEAA money that funded the Maine Criminal Law Revision Commission which completely revised and improved the Maine criminal code. With the help of LEAA funds, Maine has one of the Nation's statewide fully integrated radio communication networks that ties together State, county, and local law enforcement agencies.
The University of Maine for the first time now offers college level degree programs in criminal justice at its Bangor, Augusta, and Portland campuses; and all police officers must graduate from the new police academy.
These and other programs would not have been possible without LEAA money. Much of this success is due to the fact that Congress gave the States a flexibility in expending block grants according to their particular needs and priorities.
So I want to commend the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the manager of this bill, and the members of the committee, for their efforts in continuing and strengthening LEAA. I commend the Appropriations Committee for their efforts to hold the budgetary lines for law enforcement and justice programs generally.
I support this bill.