This amendment would authorize $1.5 billion a year through fiscal 2005 for community policing programs. According to amendment author Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), it would "give the states up to another 50,000 police officers over the next 5 years." But Senator Don Nickles (R-OK) objected to the measure, saying, "We are having the federal government provide for police in cities, and that is not a federal responsibility." It is also, of course, a step toward a national police force. The Senate rejected the amendment on May 20, 1999 by a vote of 48 to 50 (Congressional Record, page S5709, roll call 139; we have assigned pluses to the "nays" and minuses to the "yeas.").