Speech #1040132561

President. this amendment makes a technical correction to the bills current language appropriating funds for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. known in short as SCAAP. I was very pleased last year to be part of a bipartisan group of Senators who introduced legislation to establish SCAAP. which was ultimately made part of the crime bill. SCAAP was established in recognition of the burden placed on State and local governments by the Federal Governments failure to control illegal immigration. when State and local governments then find themselves faced with the high cost of incarcerating persons who enter this country illegally and are later convicted of felonies. Unfortunately. a glitch in the appropriations language prevented SCAAP from completely fulfilling its purposecontrary to SCAAP. local governments were excluded from reimbursement. Even more unfortunately. this mistake has been replicated in the appropriations bill which we now have before us. Specifically. this appropriations bill. like last years appropriations bill. provides that the funds appropriated for SCAAP shall be available as authorized by section 501 of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 [IRCA]. rather than as authorized by SCAAP itself. which was enacted as section 242(j) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. as part of the 1994 Crime Act. Section 501 of IRCA only provides for reimbursement to States. not to localities. The reference to IRCA. in effect. means that only States and not localities would be reimbursed for their costs from not only the $130 million in fiscal year 1995 SCAAP funds. but also the $300 million in fiscal year 1996 funds that would be appropriated under this bill.