By Allen                                               H.R. No. 943
         76R15692 EFD-D                           
                                 R E S O L U T I O N
 1-1           WHEREAS, The United States Congress has established the State
 1-2     Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) to provide federal
 1-3     assistance to state and local governments for costs incurred for
 1-4     the imprisonment of undocumented aliens who commit criminal
 1-5     offenses; and
 1-6           WHEREAS, The SCAAP program, which is administered by the
 1-7     United States Department of Justice, has a funding level authorized
 1-8     by statute of $650 million per year; actual SCAAP funding for the
 1-9     1999 fiscal year, however, is only $585 million, an amount that
1-10     provides state and local governments a mere 30 percent of their
1-11     total reimbursable costs; and
1-12           WHEREAS, The amount of money spent in Texas by local and
1-13     state agencies related to the incarceration of undocumented aliens
1-14     charged or convicted with criminal offenses ranks as the third
1-15     highest in the nation; and
1-16           WHEREAS, Although full funding of the SCAAP program to the
1-17     $650 million level will not decrease the total number of
1-18     undocumented aliens held in state or county facilities, increased
1-19     funding will raise the level of costs reimbursed by the federal
1-20     government to approximately 40 percent of the costs for
1-21     incarceration of these prisoners; now, therefore, be it
1-22           RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 76th Texas
1-23     Legislature hereby respectfully request the Congress of the United
1-24     States to fully fund the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program at
 2-1     the authorized level of $650 million; and, be it further
 2-2           RESOLVED, That the chief clerk of the Texas House of
 2-3     Representatives forward official copies of this resolution to the
 2-4     president of the United States, to the speaker of the house of
 2-5     representatives and the president of the senate of the United
 2-6     States Congress, and to all the members of the Texas delegation to
 2-7     the congress with the request that this  resolution be officially
 2-8     entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress
 2-9     of the United States of America.