By REP. RON PAUL

The House of Representatives recently approved a massive appropriations bill that will fund Treasury Dept. agencies. The bill appropriates nearly $30 billion an increase over last year’s already huge Treasury budget.

More disturbing is the whopping 23 percent increase for the Bureau of Al- cohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

ATF gets more than $730 million dollars for fiscal year 2001,an increase of $166 million. The administration wants the agency to hire 600 new officers to enforce. Never mind the obvious failure of gun control and the clear Second Amendment prohibition against such laws. The politicians are determined to abolish gun rights and are determined to use federal po-lice to accomplish the task.

The public has become aware of the disturbing trend toward federal policing of our nation. Many do not support ATF, especially after Waco. Now we have Congress spending more to increase the budget for ATF, despite its highly questionable actions and the resulting public mistrust of the agency. Our Constitution lists only three federal crimes: counterfeiting, treason, and piracy. The Founding Fathers never envisioned a federal police force knowing such a force would trample on the right of each state to enact and enforce its own criminal laws. Hence there is no provision for the creation of a general federal police force in the enumeration of congressional powers. Furthermore, the 10^th amendment ex-plicitly reserves the general police power to the states individually.

Washington politicians, however, have no interest in constitutional limitations. They have consistently expanded federal criminal laws, particularly in the areas of drugs and firearms. The result is the inevitable call for more federal police. We are told we need more ATF agents to monitor firearms, and more DEA agents to wage the "war on drugs." Congress is not concerned with its lack of constitutional authority to create a national police force.

Washington politicians have successfully used excessive-force allegations against local police to further their goals. It is convenient to portray local police as violent or racist and in need of federal oversight. The question is whether we should trust a federal police force more than our local authorities.

I believe there is growing recognition that our Founding Fathers were correct when they prohibited federal involvement in law enforcement. In Waco,

Americans had a vivid example of the impact of the growing police state. With the veneer being stripped from the myth of federal law enforcement, our citizens are beginning to realize that it is both unconstitutional and untenable ________________________________________________________________