In 1994, President Clinton pushed Congress to authorize $200 million in grants to help states hire 100,000 new police officers. While the total number of new hires fell well short of that, there's been new legislation introduced in Congress to reauthorize the program that administered the grants -- the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program.
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced S. 2254, the COPS Improvements Act of 2014, which would fund the program through 2019 at $649 million above current levels. The bill was introduced in an effort to provide "critical resources to local police departments," and is featured in this week's edition of The Taxpayer's Tab.
Also in this week's issue:
- Most Friended: Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Kristi Noem (R-SD) introduced H.R. 4628, which would double the time women in the military can take for maternity leave, from 6 weeks to 12. The additional time would be unpaid. The MOM Act had 80 cosponsors in the House as of Thursday.
- Least Expensive: Congressman Matt Salmon (R-AZ) introduced H.R. 4649, which would end funding for Voice of America programming. VOA is a government-run radio and television broadcasting service that reaches millions of foreign citizens who have limited access to reliable news, but there are questions about its effectiveness and whether the programming is duplicative. NTUF estimates that Rep. Salmon's bill would save taxpayers $196 million.
For more information on these bills and to view past issues, check out The Tab online.