Speech #1040019920

I am delighted that we seem to be on the verge of virtually total success in this matter. I thank our colleagues for their support on this very important matter. The McCollumBerman amendment simply provides that before the Department of Justice spends any funds appropriated under the authority of this bill for prison construction. the Attorney General must reimburse States for at least $650 million of the cost of incarcerating Illegal aliens convicted of felonies. In other words. it makes reimbursement of States. for the cost of imprisoning criminal aliens a priority over spending for new prison construction. This amendment follows on action Congress took last year at the behest of several of us from States with large populations of criminal aliens.