the frankly i think that it would be tragic because as was said earlier homeland security begins at home and we are solely dependent on many areas especially the smaller jurisdictions on this funding  on behalf of our nation's prosecutors i would like to thank the subcommittee for the opportunity to share my views on the burn jag funding program and i would urge the subcommittee to take the necessary steps to ensure the authorisation of edward burns memorial justice assistance grants that fiscal year two thousand and six levels through fiscal year two thousand and twelve thank you very much thank you mr fox jeff webber good morning mr chairman and members of the committee my name is craig weber i am the sheriff of parish louisiana and president of the national sheriffs association representing over three thousand elected sheriffs and more than twenty two thousand law enforcement professionals appear before you today to discuss the necessity for brain jag among state and local law enforcement agencies and the urgent need to reauthorize funding levels through fiscal year two thousand and twelve shows play in the role in the criminal justice system beyond providing traditional policing services share of also manage local jails and often provide court security over ninety nine percent of the sheriffs are elected and oftentimes serve as the chief law enforcement officers of their counties giving us a keen understanding of the needs of the criminal justice system and the local communities we serve the purpose of brian jag is to assist state and local law enforcement in combat in crime in their communities primarily this task has been accomplished through the establishment of multi programs over the last several years we have seen dramatic decreases in burn jag funding from a high of nearly nine hundred million dollars in f y o three to one hundred seventy million dollars in f y o eight the funding cut in a sixty seven percent decrease represents the most significant funding cut to drug fighting initiatives in the last twenty five years this will result in as many as half of the longstanding multi jurisdictional drug t shutting down as of july first of this year in the remaining task forces will stay significant reduced operational effectiveness gangs drug dealers and other violent criminals are certain to regain a stronghold in the area of narcotics trafficking and distribution moreover the inability to sustain drug task forces will lead to the loss the veteran members possessing years of institutional knowledge the loss of intelligence databases and the loss of informants the drastic reduction of burn jag and other essential programs such as cops places an insurmountable burden upon state and local law enforcement as funding for law enforcement continues to decrease we continue to see an increase in crime in the numbers are there to prove that this is already happening additionally assaults on police offices have likewise increased the level of violence is now bleeding into areas where it has never been seen before one week ago i received the now infamous three a m phone call with the news of a triple homicide that had occurred in the food parish a residential bedroom community three individuals who themselves have been arrested in the past bottle of multi jurisdictional drugs were ambushed as they sat in a parked vehicle warden twenty rounds from an a k forty seven assault were pumped into the late model mustang in the occupants had no chance to escape from that that chamber the customer and jack cannot come at a worse time given the fact that hundreds of potentially violent federally convicted drug dealers of being released from prison pursuant to mandates u s sentencing commission these offenders will soon flood our towns cities and counties ready to reestablish their turf some of the problems created by street corner drug dealers are limited in scope and therefore it is a state and local issue with no role for the federal government the fallacy of this proposition lies in the fact that the success of multi jurisdictional task forces in reducing the proliferation of backyard meth labs has resulted in the creation of super meth labs in mexico and the importation of meth into the united states also the world wide web presents endless opportunities for drugs and illegal substances to be brought into the country from around the world and while we interdiction units have demonstrated the vast nature of networking of interstate trafficking in addition to restoring the funding for burn jag i urge congress to reauthorize funding for burn jag through fiscal year two thousand and twelve in the amount of one point one billion dollars per year which will enable existing task forces to continue operations and the opportunities if a new task force is to start up i would like to thank congressman henry johnson of georgia and the fifty three co sponsors for supporting brain jag and introducing h r three five four six finally i would like to propose the committee give serious consideration to increasing brain jag allocations the rural communities which by my early example now faces big city problems currently funding is allocated to each area on a national crime violent reports although rural areas may not have violent crime rates competitive with suburban urban areas does not mean the rural areas and not have significant crime problems in closing thank you for the opportunity to come before you this morning and express our concerns i hope i have conveyed to you the dire situation that sheriffs a face with across the country and how critical the burning jet program is to director of public safety for the city of sherwood oregon i also serve as president of the international association of chiefs of police i appreciate the opportunity to be here with my distinguished colleagues today to discuss this critical issue facing state tribal and local law enforcement agencies in the united states there are more than eighteen thousand law enforcement agencies and well over seven hundred thousand officers who patrol our state highways on the streets of our communities each and every day during the last fifteen years these officers and the law enforcement agencies they serve made tremendous strides in reducing the level of crime and violence in our communities this is been accomplished in part because these officers have an intimate knowledge of their communities and because they have developed close working relationships with the citizens they serve yet despite despite the best efforts of our nation's law enforcement officers the disturbing truth is that each year in the united states well over a million of our fellow citizens are victims of violent crime unfortunately in the last two years we have seen a steady increase in the rate of violent crime in united states in some communities and while there are many theories to be different theories as to why violent crime is is increasing in these communities after years of often double digit declines there is one fact that all can agree upon no place is immune what were once considered problems of our major metropolitan areas drug addiction and distribution violent crime gangs and poverty have migrated to suburban and even rural locations according to the f b i uniform crime report cities with populations from twenty five to fifty thousand are seeing the fastest growing inciden from two thousand and four through two thousand and six the violent crime rate in these communities rose by more than seven percent in towns with populations from ten to twenty five thousand the homicide rate went up by nine point four percent over the same two year period it is telling that this increas crime in america violent and otherwise corresponds to the substantial decline in funding for books for local and state law enforcement from federal government assistance programs in the years since two thousand and three the very programs that allowed state tribal and local law enforcement to combat crime in our communities such as the edward burnham oriole justice grant program have suffered significant budget reductions and has been mentioned in the f y two thousand a dominant us burning jag was funded at just one hundred seventy million a decrease of sixty eight percent additionally the administration's f y two thousand and nine budget proposal calls for the complete elimination of the burn program regrettably these cuts come cut only can excuse me these cuts only continue a trend that began in f y two thousand and three of significant funding reductions for law enforcement assistance funding at the department of justice in fact when compared to f y two thousand to funding level of three point eight billion the administration's f y two thousand and nine proposal represents a reduction of more than three point four billion or ninety percent i won't go into complete analysis of the budget but if is your if it is your pleasure mr chairman i would like to submit a copy of the budget analysis for the record without objection so thank you i would however like to express the  profound concern over the impact of these these cuts have had on burn and jag it is the belief that the burning jag program played an integral role in our ability to combat crime and protect our communities for example as mentioned in my written statement the value burning jag program was aptly demonstrated earlier this year when forty one state drug enforcement agencies participated in operation burn blitz a one day enforcement effort which resulted in the arrest of four thousand two hundred twenty individuals and seizure of vast quantities of illicit narcotics the successful effort was made possible by the burning jag funds provided to state tribal and local law enforcement agencies with the necessary resources to partner successfully unfortunately if the burning jag program is severely reduced o eliminated the effectiveness of proven and successful law enforcement and crime reduction programs will suffer for example in my home state of oregon if the burning jag funds continue to decline as it has in years past these programs will be severely these programs wi severely reduced or eliminated all six of our multi jurisdictional drug task force does that cover all organs thirty six counties these task forces target those engage in the production distribution and the use of methamphetamine heroin marijuana crack cocaine and e four of our most successful domestic and family violence prevention programs to alcohol and drug treatment programs eleven drug court programs for juvenile justice prevention programs in addition some agencies in the us will no longer be able to afford sobriety checkpoint equipment portable radios less than lethal technologies and training materials and equipment simply stated reductions to the burning jag program have the potential to weaken severely the capabilities of law enforcement agencies nationwide reducing their ability to mount aggressive and effective crime prevention and crime reduction programs sadly this will undoubtedly lead to more crime and violence in our hometown and our hometown thank you for your time mr chairman i'm be pleased to answer any questions you or the members of subcommittee may have chairman scott gohmert member of the subcommittee i appreciate the opportunity to discuss the importance of h r thirty five forty six and i want to thank mr johnson as the author and for his leadership on this issue i also want to thank the subcommittee for focusing attention on the burn jag formula program it is the single most important component for sustaining multiverse directional drug enforcement in america the burn formula program provides only a small amount of the overall funding that is dedicated to state  local drug enforcement but its role is pivotal in allowing us to fight the scourge of drugs and gangs in our communities funding for burn provides the necessary incentive for multi verse fictional coordination in combating the drug epidemic is this coordination that has improve the effectiveness of drug enforcement and has helped reduce drug abuse meth labs and violent crime it is the reason that ninety seven percent of all drug arrests in america are bad by state local cops drug traffickers are not bound by borders of cities states or nations criminal most delivery is why multigenerational trask's task forces are critical in battling the threat to our security multi jurisdictional task forces help reduce the impact of drugs and firearm trafficking fight gangs and organized crime  america's community by leveraging information and resources to provide a real time advantage for law enforcement thanks to burne funded task forces drug and best the gators are colocated working cooperatively in cities and towns and rural communities throughout america recent proposals to reduce or eliminate the burn jag program a reckless and disturbing drug enforcement was dealt a devastating blow in the original burn program and local law enforcement block grants were consolidated into the burn justice assistance grant with a significant reduction in funding will be forced to close during my thirty four year career i've seen more drug caused death and devastation than i care to think about a pull too many children from dens have been blocked i've seen too many who have died from drug overdose with a violent crime that's always present when drugs are near a nine eleven three thousand americans were murdered by terrorists from foreign lands the intensity and sure evil of an attack was a wake up call to the world ironically the events of nine eleven overshadowed the chemical attacks that occur each day in cities and towns in the form of illegal drug trafficking drug overdoses kill more than thirty thousand americans each year and the impact on our economy is estimated to be more than one hundred and eighty billion dollars annually but those stark numbers don't paint the complete picture the unrelenting attack by international cartels gangs meth cookers and neighborhood drug dealers is a tragedy that touches every family how can we quantify the last lives ruined opportunities lost and heartache caused by drug  abuse no child in america has been injured or killed in a terrorist attack but most children will be asked to try illegal drugs each child will struggle with a choice that has the real potential to ruin their life the choice the wrongly made will cause them to sacrifice health mental state education and family services of our conduct officer is not only my job it's a moral responsibility in my thirty four years no program has enabled me to carry out that responsibility more effectively than byrne if congress doesn't embrace a chair thirty five forty six and if it doesn't restore funding for byrne jag and the f y o nine appropriations that i and my colleagues will be prevented from doing what we know works more importantly what we know is right because the last minute cu to burn jag and the consolidated consolidated appropriations act a diverse group of law enforcement treatment prevention corrections and victim's rights groups labor organizations and grassroots groups have come together in an effort to restore funding for burn jag in recent letters submitted to the house leadership thirty of those groups representing almost a million combined members of public servants and community act activists requested funding  y two thousand and eight in addition to those associations a bipartisan group of two hundred eighteen members of the house signed the letter sent to leadership appropriators requesting four hundred thirty million in emergency funding for burn ja additionally a bipartisan group of fifty six senators signed a similar letter this broad show of support for a federal program is extremely rare and it shows how deep the support for this program is i'd like to submit those letters for the record that objection to it on behalf of america's narcotic officers i urge the members of the subcommittee who have been leaders in protecting programs that fight back against drug traffickers and gang violence to do everything in your power to programs or consolidating the programs for you or do you propose to cut the funding overall mr chairman the programs themselves that are currently funded under the burn program would still be eligible for funding under this initiative the total dollar figure  public safety which is two hundred million those are the two pieces that fall within the bureau of justice systems that would be total four hundred million the state legislator during the reagan administrator ministration and they w frequently have a lot of grams consolidated and each of the programs would be told this plenty of money for your program but the total amount of money was cut so we want to make sure that if you're thousand and nine recommended budget all the programs are identified as discretionary competitive flexible grant programs and in the awarding of grants politics favoritism or religion trump evidence based approaches mr chairman we operate certainly at the bureau of justice systems a very open competitive and flexible program as we have administered the funds that you allowed us last year under the berne discretionary about that model mr chairman you will find that you'll have a prosecuting attorney who is dedicated to a task force and you will have multi jurisdictional resources dedicated to that model you talk about your experience in the state legislature and i remember mine as well but earlier than that i was a police officer and it would be very difficult to dedicate myself to investigating a presence a crack house where we knew that there was a great deal of trafficking going out of it when i had all the other responsibilities to tend to the radio would go off that those are real world impediments to true narcotics investigation when you have a dedicated task force that doesn't happen and they are able to pool their resources work together as a team and they should be accountable to a prosecutor who is accountable in arkansas to the people they're elected in their deputies so i guess the same question a number of people w can't be done without federal funds simply the resources are not available they're strapped and i had committed when i was running for attorney general in arkansas to doing just what i'm doing today which is to come and encourage congress to renew these funds if we do not have them renewed i think that is of paramount importance that we try to do as much as we can on the state level to fill the void because the void will be filled by those who want to do harm in our communities but the truth is the states are hurting as well and how can we make sure that is effective oversight for these multitude of six you know task forces who kind of who's in charge i think we have to follow the money in arkansas sit on a council that is responsible for reviewing the applications from each of the drug task forces and then we of course are responsible to justice department and i think that increased oversight and accountability at all levels would be important and i certainly would support that i just agree with congressman johnson that withdrawing funding would be the wrong course who should do the oversight i think we should do it at each level and oversee and oversee frankly one another i think that our drug counselor in arkansas has a responsibility not just to review the applications made by these drug  task forces and other entities that seek the money i think we should look over what is their structure like how are they screening officers to be a part of the program not just how are they spending it we have been counters to make sure that money isn't being stolen but how are they actually implementing their programs are they working with state and federal law enforcement or are they simply targeting small time the operators and who should do that oversight in arkansas think again it should be the elected prosecutor who is answerable directly to the people who has to dedicate one deputy to a multi jurisdictional task force i think it should be the drug counsel on which the attorney general's office the state police the drugs are in the governor's office and others  we set up a formula whereby the offices that are doing the poorest the poorest workers in them show that they should get more money than the most efficient most effective offices and i like it when we can avoid that happening so that if there is an office that sufficient does need help we get them money and  mr as is there some way to avoid that with the baron jag program mr chairman congressman gohmert we're excited about the opportunity we had with the seventy five million dollars this year for the target of violent crime task forces that we established we took in developing that initiative all the best that we saw with the burn jag program over the years i've had the opportunity to also administer the funds at the state level here in washington and actually be a burn jag recipient at the local level so that a lot of experience and partnership amongst various agencies here on this panel as well went into the ideas behind the development of the initiative focusing on ideas of intelligence led policing trying to look at data driven model so that where we're put targeting money in the community where the greatest crime need is we have various communities across the country and the attorney general gonzales put out an eight hundred city tour we went to various communities look at crime rates where they were up or down and what were some of the  causes what were locals really seeing because really for us to prescribe a program here in washington that doesn't have the input of the locals addressing their specific crime need would would really be less than worthy so in identifying those needs in those issues one things we found that the best way to effect change in public safety in that community is to really allowed a program to address local needs and concerns and be targeted for that need we put out over one hundred six communities are receiving those targeting violent crime task force partnership  initiatives where they decide themselves what their crime issue is and what they want to address preliminary results for that program so far show that in just a two month because we just the program just kicked off in january but over a two month period we see felony arrests seven hundred over has done a lot of good but apparently as the chairman pointed out there's a bad egg every now and then that uses things inappropriate like because they're human and one thing we know is no matter how wonderful you are there's not adequate accountability you're given temptations you shouldn't to face but i do appreciate all the testimony i would just like to submit to you i mean represent not only your own office but most of you represent many other people as well you don't have to wait until you're invited to come testify to give us feedback on  something if you're unhappy about something then just bombard chairman scott's office with messages seriously i mean if there's a problem on legislation oftentimes you know about it or hear about it before we do even it was an example in the last congress i had a court security bill and i was asked by the administration will we mind sticking in a provision that would allow the d o doing is that we're going to end any chance any sheriff or chief of police or anybody ever had of being a u s marshal because it would have to be within the civil service area already well as soon as i heard that was the deal i pulled it out of the bill i'm not sticking that in there and i told my share to help president share of it they don't want to send all this stuff all over the country just give me a call let me know if there's a problem we want to work with them you know and so i'm giving that anecdotally to you most of the people in congress and i know everybody up here now we don't want to make your life more miserable we want to try to work together and make things happen so when you hear or you learn that something is a problem just let us know as we do want to work with you and if i could just might this found common german bad things might happen people might use some money  appropriately and i to putting more pressure than necessary mr as but if we get embarrassed is just the way it is we're going to look for somebody to embarrass and guess who that's probably going to be so congress i was aware as a county commissioner that this train on our budget and how we would have to make choices in terms of how much to pay our police officers how much goes to low in force might and not paying them so much that they would be able to go home and enjoy you know some time with their family they had to work twenty thirty hours extra per week just to make ends meet and  so it's a really difficult situation to be a law enforcement officer and then you may never be able to come back home again and so with this worthy this very worthy an honorable profession that we're not paying them enough to do it makes it important that there is funding from the federal level to help streamline and make more efficient the efforts of our local law enforcement officials i want to thank all of the law enforcement officials for what you've done to help keep our safe keep our streets safe and and i want success yet you also in slashing the program which would essentially hurt those efforts how do you reconcile those two positions and also would you answer for me how will these competitive grants state that you are advocating for how will they be awarded will they be awarded from a local perspective or from a national perspective mr chairman congressman johnson appreciate the opportunity answer that as it relates to the burn jag program in particular and the efforts that we've put forth to address those issues of violent  crime over the years we have seen and i've been in this position for a little over four years now before as i mentioned i was at state level and previously at the local level so i've seen the different facets of burn and our readily admit in my tenure on the other side i often times did not submit the best reports to communicate the value of the criminal justice efforts in particular the berne jag program when i came to washington i clearly saw within my agency that the information that we were getting wasn't as strong as it could be to really tell a story of the value of resources and without that many of the issues that you've addressed here today surface we recognize that we need a multi faceted approach recognize that we need accountability so we engage discussion with many of the partners here at this table to really help define what it is that we need how do we communicate the real value of these initiatives we recognize that we had literally must interrupt you and i want to focus you on that particular question how will this new structure given the the detour your rating economic condition which the country faces drug trafficking crimes of violence property climbs going to go up as a result of people being strapped for funding if you will so i'm talking about on a personal level so how will your new formula in hence the ability to fight the crime that is chairman congressman johnson what we have seen in the crime statistics what it's showing us is in particular if you look at the crime violent crimes reported in two thousand and five in two thousand and six sixteen cities across the nation account for over half of those violent crime increases which is a huge percentage of the discussion we have as it relates to a formula grant is by merely sprinkling the resources throughout communities although the as you've heard here today and you'll hear from other jurisdictions your experience at the county level is well those resources are valuable because they help with the necessary dollars in in the economy at that local level however when we look at the crime picture itself the department has tried to approach its efforts and whether it's the f b i state street safe streets initiative the u s marshals safe surrender program the violent crime partnership task force initiative etc are p s n an anti gang initiative on those communities where you have the largest crime increases who would make that decision as far as  the grant awardees who would award that money would that be done in washington yes or congressman what we have is we have a targeted approach where the community decides whether the problem is and it's competitive so yes through a competitive process a decision would be made at the department of justice don't you think it be more effective if the local law enforcement agencies are able to determine how best to use the funding yes congressman johnson and that is specifically built into the program that they determine whether it is they need a drug court whether they need a riyadh tree initiative whether they need a crime prevention program you're absolutely correct but they are not happy shailene in washington d c would make that determination congressman the official in washington d c would only make the decision based on a competitive peer review xterm review grant making process not based on someone sitting in my chair in my office saying we know what's best for your office know the locals know what's best they would merely have to compete for your testimony i very much appreciate it and i want to quickly echo my colleagues sentiments of how critical the burn jag finding is to state and local law enforcement officers and their ability to fight crime and assist in the prevention of drug use i want to also thank mr mcdaniel for highlighting the impact of these proposed cuts in my home state of wisconsin so eloquently in your testimony i was going to go over some of those numbers  i won't i do want to probe a little bit further with regard to the issue of oversight of the multifarious fictional drug task forces because  that tends to be one of the areas of criticism we do hear and we need to be able to assure our colleagues as we promote greater funding of this program that their concerns are unwarranted just for example in wisconsin in two thousand and five and jag monies help fund twenty six small tight jurisdictional drug and forstmann task forces providing specialized drug enforcement services to seventy one of wisconsin seventy two counties combined the task force has reported making almost one thousand arrests for drug offenses stemming from incidents involving marijuana crack and powder cocaine heroin and other drug offenses and these collaborative multi day agency task forces have done a tremendous job in reducing the impact of drugs gangs and organized crime in our communities but as to the oversight issue is my understanding that there is one lead agency for each jurisdictional task force and an oversight board meets as necessary that said i want to know i want to just express that i've received anecdotal information about problems with oversight in wisconsin before the addict all information  that i've heard is particularly with regard to state line multi jurisdictional enforcement where illinois wisconsin folks were collaborating and not necessarily understanding i n a traffic stop situation the laws of one another state and so please shed a little bit more light if you will mr mcdaniel and also perhaps mr  thank you congresswoman we have similar questions as i guess all states do but texarkana arkansas and texas have a very unique system where in fact they have one police department  operates within the city on both sides of the state line having to have a very unique charter and compact understanding of both state's laws and multi jurisdictional cooperation i did not come a model hand on enhanced supervision and accountability it became very clear to me quite some time ago that that was in fact needed and i'm very open to that and i believe that the attorneys general of this country would be more than willing to cooperate with local law enforcement as well as the department of justice in coming up with the best model possible i think that our primary concern was that oh my gosh we're going to see the baby thrown out with the bathwater and that was that was certainly what we consider to be the wrong course i think that there are a lot of saving graces to the program and we are more than willing as i have mentioned earlier i think that one thing that i can do and that the attorneys general can do is to create new criteria when we review more than merely a spread sheet of finances and whether or not we approve funding because obviously there are clearing houses for this money on the state level at least that's the way ours are structured and i would be more than willing to consider new and additional criteria not just for how you spend it but who's spending it what are you spending it on how are you cooperating with other agencies how do you screen your officers  who's responsible in the chain of command if there are violations of racial profiling for instance my office is responsible in arkansas as many attorneys general are for overseeing and mandating racial profiling criteria for law enforcement agencies and i've received hundreds from all over arkansas that we are in the process of reviewing we can integrate those things in such a way as to make this program more effective i believe do you have any additional comments and i'm also in washington to try to identify what type of proper accountability can be put in place b j in particular had the center for task force management initiative which we increased funding for so that we can make sure that we had properly train task forces out there so  in developing a more comprehensive approach to the training working in partnership with all the all the players if you will that are at this table and developing that oversight in partnership with the state level by creating a greater partnership between the department of justice and the stated ministering agency who oversees those local task forces that's going to be the strength of it and we've we've gained a lot of ground in the last several years in doing that thank you thank you very much mr chairman this one also directed at mr mcdaniel recently i had the chance to tour my home counties victim witness unit in the d a s office and it was  incredibly impressed by the work they do not surprisingly a majority of our conversation during my tour focused on funding cuts for the program so i want to know in your opinion is simple re authorization of burn jag at inadequate funding level enough to ensure that these victim witness programs can thrive or would you be recommending that we consider a separate stream for  authorisation and funding of the victim witness elements of this i know that each state handles it differently and i only feel competent to address mine and i'd be more than happy to provide additional information to the congresswoman the subcommittee if needed but i think that adequate funding for burn jagat certainly going to be critical to a number of things in addition to the multi jurisdictional task forces which are certainly high on everyone's attention list  but we also see everything from school resource officers to victim assistance to drug court there are a number of very worthy and important causes that fall under this large umbrella we have a diverse set of resources available to  victims and witnesses in arkansas local coordinator to the prosecuting attorneys office i myself administer somewhat of a of an insurance benefits program for victims of crimes in arkansas that don't have the ability to pay for some of their out of pocket expenses i think that all of those are key components in a larger puzzle and the first big step of course is just support the measure before the committee