ASHINGTON, Dec. 1 - Congress has eliminated direct
financing for a Justice Department program that has been the centerpiece
of the Bush administration's efforts to prosecute black-market gun crimes.
The move, which Congressional officials attributed to competing budget
priorities, cuts federal grants to local and state law enforcement
agencies in investigating and prosecuting crimes committed with guns. It
also raises questions about the administration's ability to persuade the
Republican-controlled Congress to support its legislative priorities,
after Republicans last month blocked an intelligence overhaul backed by
the White House.
The administration had sought $45 million for local grants under the
gun prosecution program, Project Safe Neighborhoods. That would have
represented a sharp increase in grants for a program that President Bush
and Attorney General John Ashcroft have hailed as a critical way to crack
down on gun trafficking and gun-related crimes.
"If you use a gun illegally, you will do hard time," Mr. Bush is quoted
as saying on the Web site for the neighborhoods program, www.
projectsafeneighborhoods.com.
But in passing a $388 billion spending bill on Nov. 20, Congress erased
all the direct money sought for the program. A related program to track
and intercept illegal purchases of guns by youngsters, for which the
administration sought an additional $106 million, also received nothing in
the final spending package, although the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives, which administers it, received an overall
increase of $20 million.
"We didn't specifically set aside any money for the program," a
spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee, John Scofield, said.
"But we think we've taken care of the need because we provided $900
million over what the administration asked for in other general assistance
for states and locals."
Most of those broader programs are not specifically tied to gun
enforcement, but instead provide money for a variety of law enforcement
problems like detaining illegal immigrants and gang violence and could be
used to supplement gun programs, Mr. Scofield said, adding that the
reduction in direct financing for the gun program "is the reality of a
lean budget."
"It's a matter of priorities," he said, "and there are going to be
things you can fund and things you can't."
A spokeswoman for the Justice Department, Monica Goodling, said that
the department "was disappointed that Congress did not provide the full
amount that President Bush sought" but would "continue to vigorously
combat gun crime in America."
The immediate effects of the cutback on gun investigations and
prosecutions is unclear. Financing for other antigun programs related to
Safe Neighborhoods remain intact, totaling $200 million, and
administration officials said they would try to find money from elsewhere
to offset the gap that Congress left. Indeed, Chris W. Cox, chief lobbyist
for the National Rifle Association, which has been a major backer of the
gun program as a way to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals, said
he believed that financing in the federal pipeline and improved
cooperation in place at the local, state and federal levels would allow
the initiative to continue uninterrupted "whether or not there's a
specific line-item."
Gun control advocates and some law enforcement officials said they
believed that the cutback sent a troubling message about the federal
commitment to fighting gun crime and trafficking.
"The administration has been touting this program as one of their great
successes," John Lacey, an official with Americans for Gun Safety, said.
"So the fact that they're letting this program just disappear speaks to
the fact that either they are unwilling to combat gun crime or their
promises on gun crime have been just empty rhetoric."
Joe Vince, a former official at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms who is a private consultant on gun safety, said the elimination
of important parts of the program suggested a lack of commitment to
cracking down on crimes involving guns.
"Across the country, cities are starting to see an increase in
gun-related violent crimes, and Project Safe Neighborhoods was a way for
local law enforcement to combine their efforts and stem the tide," Mr.
Vince said. "If you're taking the funding away at a critical time like
this, that just doesn't make any sense to me."
The administration has highlighted Safe Neighborhoods as an effective
way to move illegal gun owners off the streets and credits it with fueling
a 76 percent increase in federal gun prosecutions in the last four years
and a sharp decrease in crimes involving guns.
But groups like Americans for Gun Safety have questioned the results,
saying the program has focused on common street criminals who use guns
without going after major black-market dealers or straw purchasers. Some
officials in Congress also question whether the program amounts to what
one Republican aide called "window dressing" by allowing the
administration to package routine gun prosecutions under a fancy-sounding
initiative.
"It's really just a conglomeration of programs, all of which can be and
are routinely done within the standard Justice Department programs," the
aide said.
