Support for Full Byrne Grant Funding

                                              Submitted by: Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Committee

                                                                             NDD.002.a08

WHEREAS, federal programs designed to assist local, state, and tribal law enforcement agencies have played a vital role in reducing the nation's crime rate; and

WHEREAS, local, state, and tribal law enforcement agencies are on the front lines in confronting the most powerful and sophisticated organized crime groups ever to challenge domestic law enforcement agencies, i.e., the international drug trafficking organizations; and

WHEREAS, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) acknowledges that the Byrne Formula Grant Program was created by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988; and

WHEREAS, the IACP recognizes that the Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Grant Program is a partnership among federal, state, and local governments to create safer communities; and

WHEREAS, the problems presented by the unprecedented flow of drugs into this country by these international criminal syndicates continues to be a threat in many areas of the United States, particularly middle-sized and smaller-sized cities and rural areas; and

WHEREAS, the 50 States, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are eligible to apply for formula grant funds; and

WHEREAS, the IACP supports efforts to improve functioning of the criminal justice system with emphasis on violent crime and serious offenders and the enforcement of state, local and tribal laws similar to those in the Federal Controlled Substances Act; and

WHEREAS, the omnibus FY 2008 appropriations bill provided only $170 million for Byrne Grant funding, representing more than a two-thirds decrease from 2007 funding levels and nearly a $900 million dollar decrease in funding from 2002; and

WHEREAS, Byrne Grant funding has experienced a steady and substantial decline in funding for federal government assistance programs since FY 2002. 9

WHEREAS, the lack of Byrne Grant funding has and will continue to severely affect the ability of state, tribal, and local law enforcement to continue drug enforcement and demand reduction efforts; and

WHEREAS, since state, tribal, and local police are often the first responders to a terrorist attack; and

WHEREAS, effective anti-crime programs are effective anti-terrorism programs, and evidence indicates that terrorist organizations and transnational gangs that are funded in part by the sale of illegal drugs add a new dimension to the need for continued investigation of narcotics-related crime; and

WHEREAS, the Byrne Grant Funding Program has proven itself an invaluable resource for cooperative federal, state, and local anti-crime policing strategies, funding multijurisdictional drug task forces and D.A.R.E. training, which are critical to state, tribal, and local law enforcement responses to the drug threat; now, therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the International Association of Chiefs of Police duly assembled at its 115th Annual Conference in San Diego, California, calls upon Congress to approve a supplemental funding package that will immediately restore full funding to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program and to fully fund the Byrne Grant Funding Program for fiscal year 2009.