Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) today urged U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to consider the needs of cities throughout Pennsylvania when determining federal funding for justice programs. Following today’s announcement regarding COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP), the Senators wrote a letter highlighting the needs of several major Pennsylvania cities omitted from the list.
The Senators wrote: “As we move forward and additional resources are made available, we would like to stress the urgent need for justice funding in Pennsylvania, especially for those cities and police departments that have not received any recovery funding from your department thus far.
The full text of the letter is pasted below:
July 28, 2009
The Honorable Eric Holder
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Dear Attorney General Holder:
We write today regarding the U.S. Department of Justice’s COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP) and your department’s recent announcement of its award recipients.
While we are pleased to see that Pennsylvania received $20,163,683 in total CHRP awards, we are deeply concerned that several major cities in the Commonwealth did not receive any CHRP funding. Specifically, the cities of Pittsburgh, Allentown, Lancaster, York, Bethlehem, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre were not chosen as recipients of these grants.
It is our understanding that the goal of CHRP is to create and/or preserve law enforcement positions during times of economic downturn when police departments experience local budget cuts and must consider difficult layoffs. Unfortunately, the many police departments in Pennsylvania that did not receive any of this CHRP funding may not be able to prevent these layoffs. We are concerned that a lack of police officers in Pennsylvania will place our constituents in a precarious position.
As we move forward and additional resources are made available, we would like to stress the urgent need for justice funding in Pennsylvania, especially for those cities and police departments that have not received any recovery funding from your department thus far.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Arlen Specter and Bob Casey
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