House Panel Approves Cuts to Police Hiring Grants

Republicans controlling a House committee have moved to eliminate funding for a Clinton-era program that helps local governments hire police officers, a step driven by deepening automatic spending cuts that official Washington appears unable to head off.

The Community Oriented Policing Services program, known as COPS, has been a resilient survivor of GOP attacks dating back to the party's takeover of Congress in 1995.

The program, slated to get $440 million in President Barack Obama's budget, would instead get "zeroed out" in a spending bill to fund the Justice Department for the upcoming 2014 budget year.

The Appropriations Committee approved the cut as part of a $47 billion measure funding the operating budget for the departments of Justice and State.

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