What: All Issues : Justice for All: Civil and Criminal : Assisting Crime Impacted Communities : (H.R. 1) On an amendment increasing funding for the COPS program (which provides federal funding to states for additional police officers) by $298 million, and cutting funding for space exploration programs by $298 million. This amendment was offered to legislation funding the federal government (such bills are known as “continuing resolutions, or “CRs”) through September 2011, and cutting $61 billion in federal funding for many government programs. (2011 house Roll Call 53)
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(H.R. 1) On an amendment increasing funding for the COPS program (which provides federal funding to states for additional police officers) by $298 million, and cutting funding for space exploration programs by $298 million. This amendment was offered to legislation funding the federal government (such bills are known as “continuing resolutions, or “CRs”) through September 2011, and cutting $61 billion in federal funding for many government programs.
house Roll Call 53     Feb 16, 2011
Progressive Position:
Yea
Progressive Result:
Win
Qualifies as polarizing?
Yes
Is this vote crucial?
No

This was a vote on an amendment by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) increasing funding for the COPS program (which provides federal funding to states for additional police officers) by $298 million, and cutting funding for space exploration programs (under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA) by $298 million. This amendment was offered to legislation funding the federal government (such bills are known as “continuing resolutions, or “CRs”) through September 2011, and cutting $61 billion in federal funding for many government programs.

Weiner urged support for his amendment: “The COPS program has been a success not just because it's been a big-city program. You've got COPS over the first 10 years of the program in every single state. Every single community has had an increase because of police officers. And I thought being tough on crime was a Republican ideal. You slash this funding and what's going to wind up happening is your localities are going to have one of two choices: Lay off police officers or raise taxes some other way. It's going to be a net zero effect because they're going to want to keep these cops on the beat.”

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) objected to cutting NASA’s budget: “This [underlying] bill makes deliberate choices within NASA to strike an appropriate balance between achieving budget savings…and safety and mission assurance to prevent spaceflight accidents…. I teach security to prevent the Chinese from having cyber attacks. We had hearings the other day, and we learned that the Chinese have had cyber attacks against NASA's computers. This amendment would say that it's okay, that we can have the cyber attacks. We're going to put it somewhere else. In addition…this amendment will cost NASA's civil servants and contractors between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs.”

The House agreed to this amendment by a vote of 228-203. Voting “yea” were 158 Democrats—including a majority of progressives—and 70 Republicans. 169 Republicans and 34 Democrats voted “nay.” As a result, the House agreed to an amendment increasing funding for the COPS program by $298 million, and cutting funding for space exploration programs by $298 million.
Issue Areas:
JUSTICE FOR ALL: CIVIL AND CRIMINAL — Assisting Crime Impacted Communities

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