EXCLUSIVE: The White House castigates House Republicans and accuses them of take steps to defund the policewhile asserting that President Biden will protect law enforcement and support crime reduction programs.
The comments come after the House Republican Study Committee released its fiscal year 2025 budget proposal, titled “Fiscal Sanity to Save America.”
President Biden speaks during a campaign event at Pullman Yards March 9, 2024 in Atlanta. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
The White House is criticizing the RSC for its proposal to cut funding for Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), a program created in the 1990s to support state and local law enforcement with spending such as wages, court programs and juvenile justice programs. .
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“Conservatives support our men and women in blue, but should ask whether government should get involved in enforcing laws at the state and local level, even if it’s just a matter of funding,” it says. the draft budget.
The White House is also going after Republicans for their proposal to defend what the Republican Party calls the “constitutionally questionable provisions of the so-called bipartisan Safer Communities Act.”
The White House also accuses House Republicans of taking steps to support “abolish the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
“Violent crime increased under President Biden’s predecessor, but this president immediately fought back and has now reversed that trend with a historic reduction in crime,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital.
Bates said Biden has taken “unprecedented steps to hire waves of police officers, invest in effective crime reduction strategies and mental health services.”
A spokesperson for House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News Digital that House Republicans “oppose President Biden’s disastrous budget, which would raise taxes by $5 trillion and create the most largest debt/GDP ratio in history. (AP/J.Scott Applewhite)
“Joe Biden will not let Republicans in Congress defund the police, abolish law enforcement agencies like the FBI, prevent knee-jerk crime, or roll back historic legislation critical to fighting gun crime,” he said. Bates told Fox News Digital.
The White House touted Biden’s American Rescue Plan, saying communities across the country were able to invest more than $15 billion “to keep their communities safe and prevent crime.”
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“These include investments to avoid cuts to police budgets, hiring more police officers to ensure safe, effective and accountable community policing, ensuring first responders have the equipment they need to do their job and expand community violence intervention and prevention programs,” White said. House said.
The White House said Biden’s budget also includes $1.2 billion over five years to launch a new “Violent Crime Reduction and Prevention Fund.”
“The president’s budget also funds his plan for a safer America, including hiring 100,000 additional police officers for effective and accountable community policing,” the White House said, adding that Biden “wants to deploy 17.7 billion dollars for DOJ enforcement, including $2.0 billion.” an increase of more than 30 percent since 2021, for the ATF.
But the RSC is now calling out the White House, saying its budget proposal highlights that COPS funding has increased significantly since the Trump administration due to the fact that Democratic-run cities “need a bailout” after “defunded their own police departments.”
The RSC told Fox News Digital that the White House is now clinging to an argument that “highlights how Democrats are actually defunding the police across the country.”
“Conservatives versus Biden on crime — the record couldn’t be more different,” RSC Executive Director Joe Barry told Fox News Digital. “The RSC budget does not subsidize sanctuary cities or local entities that have adopted police movement funding.”
Barry added: “We are committed to upholding the rule of law.”
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And a spokesperson for House Speaker Mike JohnsonR-La., told Fox News Digital that House Republicans “oppose President Biden’s disastrous budget, which would raise taxes by $5 trillion and create the largest debt-to-GDP ratio in the story”.
“In contrast, the House GOP’s budget would cut billions in deficits and balance the budget over the next decade, while protecting Social Security and Medicare,” the spokesperson said. Johnson’s words to Fox News Digital.
