Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today said he is pleased President Obama's budget proposal funds initiatives to help secure the Southwest border and make communities safer by reducing crime.

"President Obama's budget continues to strengthen security along our border, while improving the safety of New Mexico's communities by investing in efforts to hire additional police officers, address domestic violence, and tackle crime," Bingaman said.

The White House today unveiled its fiscal year 2011 budget proposal – a blueprint used by Congress in writing spending bills that fund the federal government.  The plan contains funding to support 20,000 Border Patrol agents and hire an additional 300 Customs agents to facilitate bilateral trade and passenger traffic at border ports of entry.

The budget would also provide assistance to address the ongoing drug-related violence in Mexico, including $12 million for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Project Gunrunner program to continue to combat illegal gun smuggling along the U.S.-Mexico border.  Bingaman is a strong supporter on the program and has worked in the past to secure funding for the anti-smuggling initiative.

To help combat drug trafficking along the country's Southwest border, the budget also contains a $37 million increase for federal drug task forces and an additional $54 million for the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) to enhance anti-drug operations and intelligence sharing.  As part of partnership with Mexico, the budget contains $292 million as a follow-up to the Mèrida Initiative to strengthen democratic institutions, train law enforcement, and support local communities struggling to confront the violence.

The budget would also provide $600 million for the COPS hiring program, which would fund 8,900 new officers throughout the country as part of the Administration's multi-year effort to hire an additional 50,000 police officers.

The president's budget also includes the following:

• $330 million for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) program to reimburse states for the costs of incarcerating certain criminal aliens;
• $278 million for the various Federal Law Enforcement Training Academies (FLETCs), including FLETC-Artesia, which provides basic training to Federal Air Marshals and Border Patrol agents;
• $538 million (increase of $120 million) to address violence against women;
• $144 million for prisoner reentry programs to reduce recidivism crime rates;
• $104 million for additional FBI agents and DOJ attorneys to investigate and prosecute major white collar crime, and $60 million to increase the number of joint HHS and DOJ health care fraud task forces from seven to twenty;
• $19 million to support 45 new FBI agents in Indian Country;
• $25 million to improve tribal law enforcement equipment and training;
• $57,000,000 for drug, mental health, and problem-solving courts;
• $25 million for water and wastewater projects in colonias in the four states that border Mexico.

In addition, the budget proposal increases flood protection by setting aside $26.9 million in the International Boundary and Water Commission for construction, including $21 million for flood control and Rio Grande canalization.