GOP Blasts Clinton Crime Budget

Republicans on Capitol Hill went on the attack Thursday over President Clinton’s commitment to fighting crime, saying that the White House’s newly released budget plan would mean deep cutbacks in the War on Drugs, funds for local police and other key law enforcement areas.

Administration officials quickly dismissed such claims, noting that since 1993, when Clinton took office, funding to the U.S. Justice Department has risen 88%.

“Our commitment to fighting crime remains as high as it has ever been,” said Justice Department spokesman Myron Marlin.

The debate signals another bruising battle in Congress over Clinton’s budget, proposed this week, as Republicans seek to portray themselves as the law-and-order party and Clinton as soft on crime.

“Time and time again, this administration demonstrates a reluctance to be serious about the drug war,” said Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.), flanked at a media briefing by five other Republican members of Congress. “There’s going to have to be a major debate with the administration here.”

The budget battle is being watched particularly closely by California police departments, which have seen huge infusions of federal aid for new officers in the last four years.

The Los Angeles Police Department’s future appears stable. Intent on showing his largess to California in advance of the 2000 presidential election, Vice President Al Gore recently announced $133 million in new funding to the LAPD for 710 new officers--the department’s largest-ever federal policing grant.

But other law enforcement officials around the state say they are less certain how the budget climate will affect them.

“For some of the local programs, it could be very distressing,” said Nathan Barankin, a spokesman for the California Department of Justice.

Clinton wants to severely cut back the funding for new police officers nationwide this year because he says the hiring program will have met its goal of putting 100,000 new officers on the street. He is also moving to eliminate $523 million in law enforcement block grants.

California reaped 18% of all the money awarded under the block grant program in 1997, according to Tim Ransdell, executive director of the California Institute for Federal Policy Research in Washington.

Any cutback in the program “is obviously an issue of concern to everyone in law enforcement, particularly in California,” said Palos Verdes Estates Police Chief Timm Browne, spokesman for the California Peace Officers Assn.

Justice Department officials said Clinton’s plan actually represents a slight increase of 1.6% in total department funding, but the proposal seeks to redirect money to more narrowly targeted needs, such as technology, more prisons, and the hiring of prosecutors and probation officers.

Republican critics “are focusing on what programs have been cut, rather than on the new programs that we are funding, and those are the programs that local law enforcement officials tell us they need on a day-to-day level,” said a Justice Department budget official.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, criticized Clinton for seeking money “to turn prosecutors into social workers . . . and provide punishments such as recreational programs” for young, violent offenders. This would come at the expense, he said, of hundreds of millions of dollars for more worthy programs in such areas as juvenile crime and violence against women.

The White House budget plan calls for $17.8 billion to combat drugs, with continued emphasis on curtailing demand. That total represents an increase of about $800 million over Clinton’s proposal last year but a slight decrease from what was ultimately appropriated by Congress.

Republicans said Thursday that they are particularly troubled by an apparent shift from intercepting drugs at the borders.

“This is a serious war. This is not a war you just say ‘maybe’ about,” said Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), who chairs the House Intelligence Committee. “You win this war.”

Times staff writer Matt Lait in Los Angeles contributed to this story.