Legislative Update

NAPO Leadership Summoned to Vice Presidential Transition Meeting

At the request of Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr., NAPO president Thomas J. Nee and executive director Bill Johnson were summoned to the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Obama/Biden presidential transition team.  In a lengthy and exclusive meeting on December 23, 2008, the leadership of the transition team met with Nee and Johnson to discuss NAPO’s legislative and policy priorities for the new presidential administration.  Nee and Johnson reiterated NAPO’s long-standing legislative priorities regarding a national law enforcement officer’s bill of rights; a comprehensive national collective bargaining rights law for police, law enforcement and public safety employees; and the revivification of a fully funded national COPS program to hire and retain qualified law enforcement officers.  NAPO’s input on presidential appointments, confirmations, and policies was also solicited.  NAPO’s agenda for police week, the annual TOP COPS Awards, and our annual public safety pension and benefits program was also discussed in what promises to be only the first of many such meetings.  No other law enforcement groups were invited to this meeting, providing further administration recognition of what President-elect Barack Obama called NAPO’s position as “the leader of America’s national law enforcement organizations.”