thousand and six levels through two thousand and twelve authored by the gentleman from georgia mr johnson the burn grant program named after edward byrne a new york city police officer killed by violent drug  support a broad range of activities to prevent and control crime and to improve the criminal justice system which states and local governments have come to rely on to ensure the states use grants for law enforcement prosecution and court programs prevention and education corrections and community programs drug treatment planning evaluation technology improvement programs and crime victim and witness programs to say to use the grants to law enforcement and hold those who commit crimes accountable for their fences over the grassland integral enabling states to employ all aspects of fighting crime rather than simply using the so called get tough approach focusing on arrests and increasing creasing enjoyed appropriations that enabled it to work effectively unfortunately however funding has been diminishing over the past several years threaten its threatening its ability to function although congress authorized over a billion dollars twenty five hundred twenty million funding for fiscal year two thousand and eight has already threatened the functionality of the programs that grants support further reductions could put the existence of the programs and the trend to read the programs may result in part from instances where burn force concept and the diminishing standards for drug envoy has come to represent in the national spotlight but reducing funding is not the answer instead we should ensure that the funds are being used properly because a success of the program f control ground and program just system barn just assistance grant program is named after a fall in new york city police officer ever burn sure everyone here was aware of that and that her barn was killed in february nineteenth ninety six while protecting a witness who agreed to testify in court against local drug dealers the department of justice bureau of justice assistance administers this program which allocates using a formula based on population and crime statistics problem has a minimal amount of catchin to ensure that each date and territory receives an appropriate share of the federal funds there are seven purpose areas that the funding can be used for the areas include law enforcement prosecution court programs crime prevention education programs correction and community corrections programs drug treatment technology improvement programs and programs to support crime victims and witnesses all of those being very noteworthy once received just assistance grant funds can be used to pay for personnel over time and equipment funds provided to the states are also used for state wide initiatives technical assistance and training support for local in rural jurisdictions these programs the burn just assistance grant program was preceded by the moral state and local law enforcement assistance program and the local law enforcement block grant program but it's one of the few government programs that have been consistently supported by both parties in congress and i do believe we should continue to do so now from mr johnson's thirty five forty six is a once in a stright reauthorization of the byron justice assistance grant program at fiscal year two thousand and six levels through two thousand in twelve and  i would submit that is an example of one member of one party being very bipartisan playing no games just right for it and that is greatly appreciated but in a time where violent crime and gangs are spreading out of america's arbonne centers to suburban and rural areas congress should continue to provide our states and cities with the funding and equipment they need to effectively enforce the law i am proud to and we just appreciate the work that you do having been former prosecutor judge chief justice i have great appreciation for what a job you do and thank you for going to all the trouble to be here today and now to pay for being a witness is what draws most people here on my watch and on c span they're not really getting paid but that makes it all the more gracious on your part to be here and we thank you for being a part of this thank you usually we don't have statements from the members we have put in the record but the author of the bill before us is with us the gentleman from georgia and would call on him if he has a insight into this very critical area thank you witnesses for peering today eight thirty five forty six a bill to real t rise the would burn memorial justices and students grant program i introduced last year this law enforcement grant program is the only comprehensive federal program to combat criminal activity within a governmental and interstate approach and which provides critical funding to law to state and local law enforcement to fight crimes as well as to assist in the prevention of crimes and drug use to  treat nonviolent offenders and to improve the effectiveness of prosecutors courts as well as corrections practices in my home state of georgia these grants allow the state to maintain a will train core specialized drug enforcement officers in small law enforcement agencies that were closely together allowing falsus is to share intelligence coordinate their operations with state and federal agencies and share resources with state and federal agencies this critical funding supports half of georgia's counties in judicial districts allowing localities expression lee and rural districts to dedicate funding to over one hundred special agents commanders and support staff nationwide burn jag has led to two hundred twenty thousand a wrist the seizure of fifty four thousand weapons the destruction of five point five million grams of methamphetamine and the elimination of almost one thousand methamphetamine labs brian jag has the support of numerous law enforcement coalitions including the international association of chiefs of police the national sheriff association and the national narcotics officers association's coalitions but as we discuss how the program is worked effectively across the country we must also discuss some of the problems that have led this administration some advocacy groups to criticize the program for example as gomer cited the tragic and infamous drug operation in tooley at texas the inappropriate use of foreign jag funding for voter fraud prosecutions and the funding of task forces for an effective low level drug arrest all of which have certainly tarnished the program but slashing funding will only jeopardize the hard work our criminal justice community has made in reducing and preventing crime in our communities fighting crime shouldn't be done in a vacuum there must be a multifaceted approach that includes all parties local law enforcement prosecutors courts prosecute probation prisoner reentry programs and most importantly prevention to ensure standards and accountability once again thank you mr chairman for holding this hearing and as you know the senate has already passed this bill by unanimous consent with fifty two co sponsors and all the members of this body and groups alike have concerns about the program i believe we all can work together to ensure accountability and standards for this program thank you very treatment services technology and prevention initiatives that strengthen the nation's criminal justice system is an undergraduate degree from ohio university in political science and currently working towards a completion of a master's degree in public administration from ohio university  next witness will be dustin mcdaniel's attorney general for the state of arkansas representing the national attorneys general national association of attorneys general has an extensive history of public service including service as a uniformed patrol officer in his hometown of jones and he was a member of the arkansas house of representatives bachelor's degree from the university of arkansas law degree from the university of arkansas at little rock our next witness will be mr james james the fox district attorney  in county california and president of the national district attorneys association is a career prosecutor serving as a district attorney since one thousand nine hundred two he received both his bachelor of science degree in serious doctorate from the university of san francisco the next witness would be sure of craig webre parish louisiana president of the national sheriffs association prior to election as sheriff he served his community as an officer with the police department and as a louisiana state trooper a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and a just doctorate from loyola university next witness will be ronald c ricker who is the director of public safety city or sherwood oregon and president of the international association of chiefs of police is a graduate of the national academy of the national executive institute a program for senior executives in state and local government at the john f narcotics officers associations with combined membership of all of the sixty thousand law enforcement officers around the nation thirty two year california law enforcement veteran with twenty four of those years being in drug gang and violent crime and force one has been systems program the byrne jag program my name is to make over as and i am the director of the bureau of justice systems as was mentioned b j supports law enforcement courts correction treatment technology and prevention initiatives that strengthens the nation's criminal justice system we emphasize local control building relationships in the field providing training in technical systems developing collaboration's and partnerships streamlining and grants encouraging innovation and communicating the value of justice efforts b j is committed to providing law enforcement and justice partners with the tools to perform their jobs and make america's community safer we recognize his spending we recognize spending challenges and the need to identify an approach that allows for flexibility in meeting our nation's law enforcement needs and the ability to adapt to ever changing crime concerns to meet these challenges the department is focused on targeting resources to the areas with the greatest need where they can do the most good the president's fiscal year two thousand one budget request for more than one billion dollars would tackle the nation's most pressing needs and support priority initiatives one of the most significant changes proposed by the president's budget is the reorganization the consolidation of more than seventy exist grant programs into for multiple purpose programs the violent crime reduction partnership initiative the byrne public safety and protection program the child safety and juvenile program and the violence against women grants these new discretionary grants would award funding through a highly competitive grant program my testimony they will focus on two of these initiatives the violent crime reduction partnership crime report data shows fluctuation in rates the violent crime rate during its ministration is still well below historic levels preliminary f b i data also point to a decline in violent crime for the first half of two thousand and seven despite despite these positive trends challenges still exist some regions and communities continue to experience increases in violent crimes as attorney general mackay see recently said the nature of crime varies not only from one city to another but even from one block to the next so it is at the block level that much of our work has to happen the department is following through on the attorney general's commitment to assist state local and travel units and governments by working with our partners to identify problems and develop meaningful strategies to reduce integer crime one outcome of this effort is the violent crime reduction partnership initiative based on the department's experience administering the burn jag program president issued of six two hundred million to build on the most successful aspects of the burn jag program to help communities address high crime rates of violent crime by developing multi year stiction  law enforcement partnerships among state local tribal and federal agencies these partnerships are designed to disrupt and prevent criminal gang firearm and drug activities with discretionary funds provided by congress in fiscal year two thousand and seven we demonstrated this approach with competitive solicitation to fund task force activities refine task force activities with focus strategies including intelligence led policing to address specific crime problems last fall b j awarded more than seventy five million dollars to one hundred six sites in thirty seven states through this program with the resources sought by the president's larger budget requests of two hundred million we can expand the success and better assist community says they reduce and prevent violent crime this year the breath president's budget proposal includes two hundred million for a streamline grant program that would combine the funding streams of several programs into the new bern public safety protection program this program consolidate the off justice programs most effective state local law enforcement programs into a single flexible competitive discretionary grant program for communities to develop solutions based on their priority crime concerns mr chairman and fiscal year two thousand and nine budget proposal would enable the department to continue to work with state local and tribal partners effectively targeted federal assistance to areas with the greatest need our goal is to provide communities with the opportunity to decide for themselves how to fight the problems they are facing to support their most critical law enforcement needs law enforcement officers or the country's frontline in the fight against crime they perform dangerous jobs with courage and skill b j is committed to working alongside law enforcement and justice partners to provide the best practices and tools to ultimately strengthen the criminal justice system mr chairman thank you again for the opportunity testified today i'm happy to address any questions you or other members of the s good morning and thank you chairman scott congressman gohmert and other members of the committee for giving me the opportunity to be here today thank you congressman johnson for author ing this important legislation my name is dustin mcdaniel and i am the attorney general for the state of arkansas and i'm here today on behalf of the national association of attorneys general nag nag and each of its individual members across the country strong only urges the reauthorization of the edward berman moral justice assistance grant program the nation's attorneys general believe that fully funding full funding is critical to state and local law enforcement's ability to maintain public safety as evidence by march two thousand and eight letter to congress from all fifty six association members and if it would please the chairman i would like to have a copy of that letter from the fifty six attorneys general incorporated into the record as evidence of our strong commitment to this program without objection so ordered one of the reasons the attorneys general believe that burn jag funding is and of paramount importance is that most crime prevention efforts occur at the state and local level homeland security begins at home but with state budgets under increasing financial strain the job is becoming ever more difficult burn jag has played a role in supporting arkansas regional drug task forces in fact our nineteen drug task forces are the primary source of spending our location for the spending of our state's burn jag monies as the chairman indicated like any multi jurisdictional into prize there have been growing pains felt in the implementation of these drug task forces however state statutes and local law enforcement techniques and other evolutions have led to more efficiencies and better effective programs i agree with you congressman johnson that supervision and accountability is the answer rather than cutting this funding according to prosecutors in arkansas last year nearly seventy percent of arkansas crime lab drugs admissions were submitted by our state drug task forces the current multi jurisdictional drug task force concept is in fact more efficient fiscally and produce better risks and prosecutions than any other model however when funding was cut by sixty seven percent in fiscal year two thousand and eight law enforcement agencies across the country were forced to shut down drug and gang task forces and seize funding effective programs according to attorney general j b van holland of wisconsin funding cuts their projected the loss of more than twenty one prosecutors in that state alone primarily those losses were felt in the state's highest crime areas milwaukee county alone the largest prosecutorial unit in wisconsin will lose ten percent of its entire prosecutorial staff i believe that failing to reauthorize and fully fund burn jag is a step in the wrong direction and will leave a void that can only be filled by those who wish to do harm in our communities in arkansas for example if one compares drug task force related statistics from two thousand and four when byrne jag funding was higher to two thousand and seven when it was at its lowest the results are grim since two thousand and four arkansas has experienced a thirty five percent reduction in the number of cases filed by drug task forces and a forty one percent reduction in the number of arrests made by drug task forces th exact same time that methamphetamine has become an an epidemic once limited to southwest and pursue if it stays it has taken hold of the entire country especially in rural america burn jag funding cuts not only impact local law enforcement but they have also hampered a coordinated effort by local law enforcement or by law enforcement at all levels of government to seize drugs and prevent drug related crime each year burn drag fund more than four thousand police officers and prosecutors working on more than seven hundred fifty drug task forces across hundreds of urban and rural counties and cities in all fifty states this funding has led to more than twenty two thousand arrests fifty four thousand  five point five million grams of methamphetamine and the break up of almost nine thousand methamphetamine labs annually the successes of the program were clear the failures of the program can be addressed and i hope that congress and the administration will renew their commitment to fighting crime and protecting our communities by reauthorizing and adequately funding this critical program thank you again for allowing me to testify before the committee thank you  thank you chairman scott ranking member gohmert members of the committee my name is james fox i'm the district attorney of san mateo county california and the president of the national district attorneys association san mateo county in  recognized the value of a multi jurisdictional task force and we did create the cemetery counter narcotics trask floors which to this day continues it was a combined effort all twenty cities in our county are members of a joint powers agreement that has been very very successful and in fact just last night our task force was involved in the seizure of over a pound of methamphetamine unfortunately methamphetamine is an export from california we are a source state and that is not something that we are proud of but it unfortunately is a fact that prosecutors throughout the country have difficulties in being able to adequately train people the burn jag money has been utilized in a number of the states for training of prosecution as well as law enforcement officers and i think that increased training is something that would go a long way toward addressing the potential abuses of  narcotics in forstmann because i think that it is rare but it is definitely important that we receive the resources for the training in the state of pennsylvania the state prosecutors are solely dependent upon burn jag funding for the training of the prosecutors in that state tennessee shelby county miss memphis tennessee the prosecutor in that county has utilized the burn jag funding to create a truancy and anti truancy programs to try to address quality of life and to try to basically do community prosecution that program would be seriously jeopardize with the reduction that has been proposed in hawaii the kind of lulu district attorney also has a community prosecution program that is wholly dependent upon burn jag funding virginia prosecutors are dependent upon the funding for from burn jag for limited training that the state prosecutors do receive unfortunately from the prosecutor's perspective we have a problem in recruiting and retaining young prosecuting attorneys because education costs have gone up young people cannot afford to go into public service and as a result there is a very very high turnover for prosecution that has created a burden