LAW ENFORCEMENT CUTS LOOM

North Dakota's Homeland Security, fire and law enforcement agencies
would get mugged by a Bush administration budget that eliminates or
makes draconian cuts in several federal programs, witnesses said
Wednesday at a Senate committee hearing in Fargo.

Programs to be eliminated in the president's proposed budget for
fiscal year 2009 are the Community Oriented Policing Services program,
Byrne/Justice Assistance Grants and Interoperable Communications
Grants, said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.

Other programs would be hamstrung. Department of Homeland Security
State First Responder Grants would be slashed 78 percent, and
Firefighter Grants would be cut 61 percent, Conrad said.

"It really is stunning," Conrad said. "I don't know what the president
is thinking in making these proposals."

Panelists agreed.

Police chiefs Arland Rasmussen of West Fargo and Keith Ternes of
Fargo, and Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney said losing the COPS and
Byrne/JAG programs would make it difficult to hire officers and create
anti-drug task forces.

"I think it would be an incredible mistake" to cut the programs,
Ternes said.

Conrad said the COPS program paid for 100,000 more police officers in
the U.S.; more than 270 of them in North Dakota.

"What would it be like in our country if we took away 100,000 police
officers?" he asked.

Rasmussen said cuts to the regional information sharing system would
cripple efforts to fight organized crime, sophisticated criminals and
sex offenders. He said the program helped West Fargo police get
convictions on 22 sex offenders.

All of those testifying said cuts to programs that pay for compatible
communications systems among agencies would set back efforts to
prevent the chaos seen in the emergency response to the 9/11 terror
attacks.

State Homeland Security Director Greg Wilz said his agency still needs
$25 million to set the state's interagency communications right.

"These cuts are absolutely ludicrous," Fargo Mayor Dennis Walaker
said.

Conrad said the Senate's budget calls for $4.6 billion in funding for
law enforcement and first responders in fiscal year 2009. The
president budgeted $1.3 billion, he said.

Conrad said federal aid has significantly improved the state's
security, safety and communication. He said North Dakota received:

- - $42 million in COPS grants from 1994 to 2007.

- - $43.1 million in Byrne/JAG and local law enforcement grants from
1988 to 2007.

- - $55.1 million for the state Homeland Security program from 2003 to
2007.

- - $14.8 million for the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program
from 2004 to 2007.

Conrad, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said a presidential
veto threat forced big cuts in the budget last year. He said another
fight looms over Bush's latest budget.