Legislative Update

COPS Funding, Fiscal Year 2011

On February 9, 2011, Chairman Harold Rogers (R-KY) released the House of Representative’s Fiscal Year 2011 (FY11) Budget.  The Federal Government is almost five months into FY11. It is still operating off a Continuing Resolution (CR). The CR is set to expire on March 4, 2011. If Congress fails to pass a funding bill the Federal Government will be forced to shut down.

Chairman Rogers intends to cut an additional100 billion dollars from the CR that was presented from the President’s FY11 request.  These cuts are just the beginning of Congressional attempts to reduce our ever growing national debt.  The Republicans are committed to putting our nation on a “Sustainable Financial Path”.  This will result in a large reduction in non-security discretionary spending.  

In the first budget proposal by Chairman Rogers, the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program was cut 600 million dollars. The House Appropriations Committee has released an updated FY11 budget calling for an additional cut of 25 billion dollars from the original version. The latest funding bill called for an additional 203.1 million out of COPS programs. It also eliminated the COPS hiring program.  

Considering these drastic budget proposals, NAPO has been hard at work in Washington to correct these monumental cuts. The good news is that lawmakers believe that the COPS program is still a vital program. In fact, after reaching out to members’ offices, it seems there was no good reason to radically reduce the COPS program other than the attempt to reduce the budget.   

NAPO served as the premier law enforcement organization working tirelessly with members of Congress and the administration to enact the COPS program in 1994.  Since its inception, NAPO has continued to be a lead advocate for securing funding. We have not wavered in our commitment to educate members on the importance of this program and work with offices to minimize funding cuts and restore funds to the COPS program.   

Every Congress institutes new rules for procedure. In the House, lawmakers can offer amendments to the budget that rearrange “numbers underneath” the 58 billion dollars in proposed spending cuts.  However, they cannot propose amendments that will increase spending. There were several amendments offered to restore funds to COPS.  On February 16, 2011, Congressmen Anthony Weiner’s (D-NY) amendment -125 passed with 288 members voting in support and 203 opposed. This legislation moves $298 million from NASA’s budget to COPS and brings the total funding up from 290.5 million dollars to 588.5 million dollars and restores COPS hiring. 

The House is expected to wrap up debate before next week’s recess, this will allow for some “cooling off time” before the Senate considers the spending measure.  NAPO will work with Senators and their staff in a bipartisan fashion to secure funding for COPS.