Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today renewed his push to give border law enforcement agencies federal funding to help crack down on border related crime. 

Bingaman today introduced the Border Law Enforcement Relief Act of 2008 – legislation that would authorize $100 million a year in grant funding to border law enforcement agencies within 100 miles of the northern and southern international borders.  The funding would be used to hire additional personnel, purchase equipment, and/or to cover overtime and transportation costs. 

Communities outside the 100 mile radius may also qualify if they are in counties designated by the Attorney General as "High Impact Areas" – or areas that may be greatly affected by the flow of illegal drugs/persons but are not situated directly on the border. 

Bingaman introduced similar legislation in the past and has won Senate support for it several times.  In introducing the bill again, he continues building support for getting it through both chambers of Congress and to the president for signature.  

Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and Pete Domenici are cosponsors. 

"While Congress has dramatically increased funding to hire additional Border Patrol agents and to build tactical infrastructure -- such as surveillance cameras and barriers -- we haven't done enough in terms of helping local law enforcement.  The reality is that although we are making some progress in securing the borders, local law enforcement agencies still have to pick up much of the burden in tackling the criminal activity throughout the region," Bingaman said.  "This legislation would provide much-needed assistance."

"Close proximity to our country's border adds another dimension to the work of local law enforcement.  This legislation helps address some of the resource and funding shortfalls many communities face in seeking to keep residents safe, and I hope the Senate will act quickly to pass it," said Domenici.

Bingaman and Hutchison today also wrote to the chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee asking that funding for law enforcement agencies be put into the emergency spending bill they will soon begin to write.  Specifically, they asked for $85 million for U.S. local law enforcement agencies operating along the southern border and in other high-volume drug trafficking areas, as well as $15 million for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives' Project Gunrunner, an initiative to halt the illegal flow of weapons smuggled from the United States into Mexico. 

"We just enacted the Merida Initiative, which will send $400 million to Mexican law enforcement agencies to crack down on drug-related crime.  It's time to lend additional support to law enforcement in our own border region," Bingaman said.