Congressman says amendment will fund criminal records upgrade

Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell says an amendment he offered to a House appropriations bill to fund an upgrade for criminal records has passed. He says it adds two-and-a-half million dollars in funding. Boswell, a democrat from Des Moines, says the funding helps various law enforcement agencies work together.He says the amendment will ensure that law enforcement agencies have updated information and that they can share that information among agencies. Boswell says the bill now moves to a conference committee where they’ll work on differences between the House and Senate version. He thinks the differences aren’t big enough to keep the bill from passing. He says he thinks they can be worked out as there seems to “be a bent on getting some of these appropriations through.” Iowa’s governor signed legislation Tuesday to toughen state sex offender laws, upgrade the sex offender registry and require felons to give a sample of their D-N-A for a national database.