• •$600 million to hire and redeploy between 30,000 and 50,000 more law enforcement officers over five years, with an effort to target new officers to crime "hot spots." Funds will be used to help economically-distressed communities absorb the long-term costs of their new hires, and for programs to train, educate, and recruit law enforcement officers.

• •$350 million for crime-fighting technologies to establish an innovative Crime-Fighting Technology program to promote telecommunications and systems compatibility among criminal justice agencies, improve forensic sciences capabilities of state and local labs, and encourage the use of technologies to predict and prevent crime.

• •$200 million for community prosecutors and neighborhood D.A.s to help communities throughout the country hire more community-based prosecutors and develop community-based prosecution programs.

• •$125 million for community-wide crime prevention which will help the entire community engage in crime prevention measures, such as, adopting community-wide plans to prevent school violence.

• •Preventing Youth and Gun Violence -- $56.2 million to prevent and reduce youth gun violence; evaluate ongoing strategies for violent, and chronic juvenile offenders; develop alternative methods of punishing young offenders; and set up a comprehensive community-level enforcement effort targeting alcohol and crime.

• •Reducing Firearms Violence -- $5 million and 58 positions (41 attorneys) to ensure the effective investigation and prosecution of firearms offenders, violent felons who possess guns, and armed drug traffickers. In addition, comprehensive strategic plans will be developed to prosecute, prevent and disrupt gun violence through the cooperative efforts of law enforcement, local government and community based groups.

"Today's funding request will enable us to do everything possible to protect our citizens and the nation's infrastructure from the threat of cyber-criminals and terrorists," Reno said.

Highlights include:

• •Adding 60 FBI Agents to create up to 12 cybersquads to identify, investigate, and prevent threats and unlawful acts targeting the critical infrastructure of the U.S., including illegal intrusions into government computer networks, protected civilian computers, and the national information infrastructure.

• •Funding the Attorney General's Counterterrorism Fund - $27 million to reimburse federal departments and agencies for costs incurred in support of countering, investigating, or prosecuting domestic and/or international terrorism, and other related activities.

• •Adding 55 Assistant U.S. Attorneys to develop a global response to cyber-attacks and to help prosecute the increased number of cases involving computer and high-tech crimes.

• •Funding an Additional 9 Criminal Division Attorneys to help resolve unique issues raised by emerging computer and telecommunications technologies, litigate cases, provide litigation support to other prosecutors, train federal law enforcement personnel and coordinate international efforts to combat computer crime.

• •Expanding Domestic Preparedness Support - $38.5 million to expand the Office of Justice Program's domestic preparedness efforts.

"Successful prosecutions and tougher sentences has contributed to a rapid increase in federal jail and prison inmate populations," said Reno. "Our budget request will provide the necessary resources to build new prisons and expand existing facilities so criminals don't have an opportunity to victimize our communities."

Highlights include:

• •Constructing New Prisons - $411 million to build three new prisons (two of which will add capacity for D.C. felons), plan for six additional prisons (three of which will help to house long-term, non-returnable INS detainees), and to construct inmate work program space.

• •Activating Prison Facilities - $86.8 million to activate five facilities providing more than 4,300 additional beds in FY 2000.

• •Housing Detainees -- $119.6 million in increased funding to house the growing detainee population resulting from increased law enforcement activities of the FBI, DEA and INS along the Southwest Border.

• •Adding detention beds - $46.7 million for an additional 4,000 detention beds to accommodate the increasing number of short and long term non-U.S. citizen inmates and detainees.

"Curbing Illegal drug trafficking and drug abuse are elements we must address if we want to continue to bring our crime rates down. Today's request of nearly $8 billion, an increase of $133.3 million over last year's budget, will provide the necessary funding to help us do so," Reno said.

Highlights include:

• •Encouraging Abstinence for Drug Offenders - $215 million for an initiative which will use the power of the criminal justice system to require rigorous drug testing, sanctions, and treatment for all drug offenders.

• •Intercepting Drugs - $9 million for the Special Operations Division of DEA to manage and coordinate multi-jurisdictional investigations aimed at weakening and dismantling key drug trafficking organizations around the world.

• •Expanding the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring System -- $4.8 million to expand the only federally-funded drug use prevalence program which directly addresses the relationship between drug use and criminal behavior.

"The rigorous enforcement of our nation's civil rights laws remains one of our top priorities. We are seeking more than $18 million in new funding for the Civil Rights Division, the largest increase in nine years," said Reno.

Highlights include:

• •Adding 40 Attorneys to expand the investigation and prosecution of criminal civil rights cases, increase fair housing and fair lending enforcement efforts, and address violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

• •Funding the Community Relations Service -- $2.13 million in increased funding to support additional conflict resolution teams, which would be dispatched to local communities to resolve racial or ethnic tensions.

• •Protecting Reproductive Health Care Providers -$4.5 million to provide security assessments, and where necessary, security improvements to reproductive health clinics at high risk of violence.

"Since 1993, we have implemented an aggressive border control strategy--doubling our Border Patrol strength, significantly increasing the number of inspectors, adding new technologies, strengthening worksite enforcement, cracking down on asylum abuse, and processing more legal immigrants," Reno noted. "The 2000 budget request will allow us to construct new Border facilities and implement new measures to promote legal entry into the country."

Highlights include:

• •Supporting the INS National Border Control Strategy -- $56 million to purchase so-called force-multiplying surveillance technology, as well as to add new border inspectors in Texas.
• •Enhancing the INS Interior Enforcement Strategy -- $20 million in increased funding to transport and remove aliens in INS custody and to increase detention space.

• •Funding New Facilities -- $70.6 million to plan and construct a new Border Patrol Station and Sector Headquarters space, as well as new detention facilities.

• •Medicare/Medicaid Fraud Litigation - $5 million for audit work and automated litigation support in the Columbia/HCA matters, where fraud has been alleged in virtually every aspect of the largest health care conglomerate in the U.S.

• •Tobacco Litigation - $20 million and 50 positions, including 40 attorneys, to recover expenses of federal health care programs for tobacco-related diseases and to cover anticipated costs of expert trial witnesses.

• •Defensive Civil Litigation - $5 million and 76 positions (25 Assistant U.S. Attorneys) to handle an expanding civil defensive workload in four areas, including tort litigation; employment discrimination litigation; Social Security Disability litigation, and prisoner litigation.

• •Child Support Enforcement - $5 million and 95 paralegal positions to implement the provisions of the Child Support Recovery Act of 1996, and the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act of 1998.

• •Justice in Indian Country - $124.2 million requested to fund public safety programs on Indian land, including 26 attorneys to investigate and prosecute crimes in Indian Country.

• •Information Resources Management - $93.24 million to improve the information sharing abilities of the Department and upgrade much needed legal and management tools.

"I am proud of all we have accomplished at the Justice Department since 1993. Today's request will provide the necessary funding so we can continue to build on our results and meet the law enforcement challenges of the next century," Reno added.

99-040