For months, there were signs that appropriators were not on board with a Trump administration plan to wipe out funding for a decades-old Justice Department program tasked with coordinating major drug-trafficking and transnational-crime investigations.
Republican-led spending proposals rejected the idea. A Senate report said eliminating the program’s appropriations account would be “infeasible” without more consultation, while a House report touted the program’s “demonstrated ability” to share information efficiently to “keep Americans safe.”
During a September markup, veteran House appropriator Harold Rogers put it this way: “Our commitment to the work of the task forces can’t be underestimated or understated.”
