From the Arkansas News Bureau:

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel asked Congress on Tuesday to continue funding a program that helps law enforcement agents in the state shut down meth labs and combat drug trafficking.

The Byrne-Justice Assistance Grant program, or Byrne-JAG, brings officials from separate states, counties and cities together to prevent and fight crime.

Arkansas law enforcement agents seized 133 meth labs in the first four months of 2008, which McDaniel attributed to the 19 drug task forces in the state. All receive federal grant money.

The program’s funding was cut by 67 percent last year, from $520 million nationwide in the 2007 fiscal year to $170 million this year.

Byrne-JAG funding has decreased each year since 2004.

“Law enforcement agencies across the country were forced to shut down multi-jurisdictional drug and gang task forces, lay off police and prosecutors, and cease to fund programs proven to assist drug-addicted citizens to again become productive members of society,” McDaniel said.

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