THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary ________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release May 17, 2000
Highlights of President Clinton's
Counterterrorism Funding Request
President Clinton announced a plan today to invest an additional $300 million in critical programs to strengthen the Nation's counterterrorism efforts.
The funding would enhance the Federal government's work to deter and detect terrorist activity, applying lessons learned from the counterterrorism effort undertaken during Millennium celebration events. The request proposes $89 million for the Department of Justice and $87 million for the Department of the Treasury to fund extra personnel, new equipment, and additional joint operations and infrastructure improvements. An additional $159 million is proposed for other agencies to support these efforts.
Highlights of the initiative include:
- Increasing the number of Joint Terrorism Task Forces located
throughout the United States. The Task Forces were established to
integrate the resources and expertise of the law enforcement
authorities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the U.S. Customs
Service, ATF, Secret Service and state and local law enforcement.
- Improving monitoring on the northern border with secure
communications equipment and advanced monitoring equipment, including
high resolution day and night camera technology.
- Expanding INS forensic capabilities at the government's federal crime
lab dedicated to the forensic examination of potentially fraudulent
travel documents.
- Supporting the establishment of a new interagency National Terrorist
Asset Tracking Center to analyze the financing of terrorist
organizations and expand the Office of Foreign Asset Control at the
Department of the Treasury.
- Increasing the number of Department of Justice prosecutors and legal
staff to support the prosecution of terrorists.
- Increasing the Department of the Treasury's Counterterrorism Fund
that was established to cover costs associated with efforts to
counter, investigate or prosecute domestic or international
terrorism.
Today's request builds on activities already being undertaken. In FY 2000, reprogramming funds the majority of the package. A fully offset FY 2001 budget amendment will be submitted to Congress.
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