Volunteer Responder Incentive Protection Reauthorization Act of 2010

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce my Growing Farm to School Programs Act of 2010. This important proposal will support grassroots efforts all across our Nation to improve the health and well-being of children while supporting local farmers and bolstering local economies.

I am pleased to have 13 of my respected Senate colleagues from across the country join with me today as original cosponsors of this bill. Farm to School is a proven, common-sense, community-driven approach to incorporate farm fresh local food into school meals. Schools nationwide understand the many benefits of farm to school but often lack the startup funding and the technical capacity to plan and implement the program. This bill will provide the important seed money and technical assistance needed to enable our schools to teach children about good nutrition and show them the importance of agriculture while also supporting local farms.

It is amazing how far some farm products travel to get to our school cafeterias, and how heavily processed it is when it arrives. While our Nation's schools should provide an enormous market for our struggling small and mid-sized farmers, for far too long the products grown by our family farms have largely been absent from school lunch trays. We should not be surprised that many kids today do not understand the link between the food they eat and farms on which it is raised. By offering our children local, fresh, less-processed choices, and a chance to learn how and where their food is grown we can also provide economic benefits for small, local farms and keep food dollars within the community.

Communities and schools all across our Nation are beginning to link farms and school with great success. In my home State of Vermont, from rural towns across the state to the city of Burlington, many of our schools have integrated school meals with classroom learning and local agriculture. As more schools create these important connections, neighboring communities are often also eager to start similar programs. Unfortunately many of these schools do not have sufficient staff, expertise, equipment, or funding to start a Farm to School program on their own. The Growing Farm to Schools Programs Act will provide the small amount of funding and technical assistance that these schools need to create a program. Once in place, these programs can be expected to be self-sustaining.

In introducing the Growing Farm to School Programs Act of 2010, I am hoping that we will be able to provide more communities, schools, and farmers the opportunity to grow and cultivate Farm to School programs. I thank my 13 co-sponsors and urge my other colleagues to join us in support of this exciting initiative.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I am now introducing the Fugitive Information Networked Database Act of 2010.

On December 12 of last year, the Philadelphia Inquirer began a series of articles that served as a blistering indictment of the Philadelphia criminal justice system. The Inquirer described it as ``a system that too often fails to punish violent criminals, fails to protect witnesses, fails to catch thousands of fugitives, fails to decide cases on their merits, and fails to provide justice.'' The Inquirer article 3 days later elaborated on the fugitive problem, noting that as of November 2009, there were almost 47,000 long-term fugitives at large.

The warrant situation in Philadelphia is complicated by the fact that the Philadelphia Police Department only enters into the national database a few hundred bench warrants deemed by the district attorney's office to concern extraditable offenses. Those who abscond from criminal proceedings in Philadelphia and flee to other States likely will not be captured because the information for their warrants is not automatically entered into the NCIC database.

The legislation I am introducing today, along with Senator Durbin, builds on legislation previously entered by then-Senator Biden and Senator Durbin. The proposed legislation will provide substantial Federal funding to assist the States in tracking and returning these fugitives.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the full text of my statement which I have just summarized and the

text of the bill be printed in the Record.