Register Now for NAPO’s 45th Annual Convention; NAPO on the Hill: Social Security Fairness Act Coalition Meeting ;House Vote to Override Biden Veto of Resolution to Nullify D.C. Police Reform Statute Fails; House Appropriators Look to Cut Spending to FY 2022 Levels; NAPO on the Hill: TBI & Concussions in Public Safety; NAPO Supports Bill to Increase Penalties for Swatting; NAPO Supports Effort to Fight Opioids in Our Communities ; NAPO Opposes FDA Ban on Menthol Cigarettes;NAPO’s Legislative Positions & Sponsor/Cosponsor Updates

June 16, 2023

The GPO reduces public employees’ Social Security spousal or survivor benefit by two-thirds of their public pension. The WEP is a benefit formula that reduces the size of public employees’ Social Security retirement benefit if they receive a pension from a non-Social Security covered job.                 

H.R. 82 currently has 280 bipartisan cosponsors, an astounding number of cosponsors so early in the Congress.  The bill did not reach this many cosponsors last Congress until well into the second session.  The Social Security Fairness Act had 305 cosponsors at the end of last Congress and we are working to get every member of Congress who signed on last Congress to sign on once again and new members whose predecessors were cosponsors to sign on in support.

This Congress we have a new majority and a new chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Jason Smith (R-MO).  Our work is cut out for us to educate the new Committee and members of Congress on the GPO and WEP and what they do to public servants’ rightly earned Social Security benefits.  While these provisions were meant as a “leveling response” when they were enacted, the current public pension landscape has drastically changed since then and the GPO and WEP are throwing public sector retirees into financial insecurity. These men and women paid into Social Security for the years they worked in a “covered” job and they deserve to get their full, earned retirement or spousal benefit.

NAPO continues to work with Representatives Graves, Letlow, and Spanberger to garner additional cosponsors and to educate Ways and Means Committee members on the GPO and WEP. Once the bill hits 290 cosponsors – the number needed to force a vote on the House floor – we will then consider our ability to successfully move this bill forward through the House and the Senate and determine next steps.

Please see our “Sponsor/Cosponsor” spreadsheet to see if your Representative is a cosponsor. Contact NAPO’s Director of Governmental Affairs, Andy Edmiston, at aedmiston@napo.org or 703-549-0775 for more information on the Social Security Fairness Act and materials you can share with your member of Congress if they are not yet a cosponsor.

House Vote to Override Biden Veto of Resolution to Nullify
D.C. Police Reform Statute Fails 

On June 14, the House voted to overturn President Biden’s veto of the joint resolution (H.J.Res. 42) that would have rescinded a District of Columbia (D.C.) police reform law, the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act (CPJRAA).  NAPO sent a letter to every member of Congress and pushed to gain the 2/3s votes necessary to succeed in overturning the veto, but ultimately the vote failed 233-197, falling short of the 287 votes needed to win.

H.J. Res. 42 was passed by Congress on May 16 in a bipartisan manner.  NAPO is disappointed with the President’s decision to veto the resolution as we have serious concerns with the CPJRAA. Most significantly, this Act is an attempt by the Council to strip officers of their Constitutional rights in the name of police reform. It also creates substandard collective bargaining rights for law enforcement officers, setting them apart from all other public servants, by eliminating officers’ ability to bargain over disciplinary issues. The CPJRAA will exacerbate the current hiring and retention crisis the Metropolitan Police Department is facing.  NAPO stands with the officers of the MPD as they work to find a way to diminish the impact of the most flagrant provisions of the CPJRAA.

House Appropriators Look to Cut Spending to FY 2022 Levels

On June 1, Congress passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, which suspended the federal debt limit through January 1, 2025, and limited federal non-defense spending. The Act also rescinds $29 billion in COVID relief and IRS funding. With the rescissions as a back-fill, it was expected that overall non-defense spending would not face huge cuts and Fiscal 2024 spending levels would be similar to what they are in Fiscal 2023.  A small group of fiscal conservatives opposed the debt limit deal and shut down business in the House for a week over their displeasure. To get the House back in working order this week, Republican leadership agreed to cut Fiscal 2024 spending levels to what they were in Fiscal 2022 except for defense and veterans funding, which will receive an increase.

The increase in defense and related spending means that non-defense appropriations will receive deeper cuts to make up for that increase.  With House appropriators funding programs, agencies, and departments at FY 22 levels, many of NAPO’s priority grant programs could face cuts from where they are in the current fiscal year, without considering any possible further cuts to make up for the added defense spending.

• Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Program: $662.9 million (FY 23) to $572 million (FY 22)
• Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act Program: $10 million (FY 23) to $8 million (FY 22)
• Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act (MIOTCRA): $45 million (FY23) to $40 million (FY22)
• Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) Program: $770.8 million (FY 23) to $674.5 million (FY 22)

The House Appropriations Committee approved allocations for each appropriations bill for FY 24 by a party line vote on June 15.  The Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill was allotted $58,676 million, which is a nearly $24 million (30%) cut from what was enacted in FY 23. Democrats refused to participate in what is usually a bipartisan process, claiming that Republicans are going back on what was agreed to in the debt limit agreement.

Senate Appropriations Committee leadership stated that they will keep with the levels agreed upon in the debt limit deal that Congress passed at the beginning of June. This sets up a possible spending fight between the House and the Senate in September when the federal government is due to run out of funding at the end of the fiscal year.

Several conservatives were calling for Congress not to fund programs that have not been reauthorized. In theory, this sounds reasonable, but Congress has been unable to reauthorize the COPS Program and Byrne JAG for nearly 20 years despite our best efforts.  To not fund these two programs alone would significantly cut federal funding to state and local law enforcement. We have successfully tabled that proposal and will continue to ensure it is not seriously considered.

As both the House and Senate kick off their appropriations process, NAPO is working with the committees and members to ensure our priority grant programs maintain their funding levels.

NAPO on the Hill: TBI & Concussions in Public Safety

NAPO is collaborating with Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) to move the Public Safety Concussions and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Health Act (S. 894) through the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. We worked closely with the Senator’s staff to develop the bill, which the Senator introduced with Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV).  With the riots that have occurred over the past few years and the increase in physical attacks on law enforcement officers, NAPO feels it is vital that the impacts of concussions and traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) be studied and best practices be disseminated to public safety agencies, officers and their families, and medical personnel to help recognize, prevent, and treat such injuries in officers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintains a website regarding TBIs under their injury prevention and control division. As part of this website, the agency provides data on TBIs, where to get help, research and reports, and specific resources for health care providers. The Public Safety Concussions and TBI Health Act would require the CDC to collect and make publicly available information on traumatic brain injuries specifically for public safety officers and provide recommendations and protocols for identifying, treating, and diagnosing concussions. It would also have the CDC disseminate information to mental health professionals on the connection between concussions and traumatic brain injuries with acute stress disorders and suicidal inclinations.   

NAPO is working to get members of the HELP Committee to cosponsor the bill in a show of support for the Committee to mark it up, including Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Senators Tina Smith (D-MN), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Ed Markey (D-MA). Our goal is to have the Public Safety Concussions and TBI Health Act marked up by the Committee in July.

Currently, Senators Mike Braun (R-IN), Bob Casey (D-PA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), John Boozman (R-AR), and Jon Tester (D-MT) have joined Senators Cornyn and Cortez Masto as cosponsors of the bill.

NAPO Supports Bill to Increase Penalties for Swatting

On June 7, Representatives David Kustoff (R-TN), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Pete Stauber (R-MN), John Rutherford (R-FL), and Henry Cuellar (D-TX), introduced the Preserving Safe Communities by Ending Swatting Act (H.R. 3913). NAPO supports this legislation as swatting calls continue to be on the rise and not only are they a serious waste of resources, but they also put the officers and the innocent people at the scene of the fake incident in a dangerous and difficult situation.

The legislation defines swatting as a call to a police department with a false story of a crime in progress with the intent to draw a large police presence to a particular address. The Preserving Safe Communities by Ending Swatting Act would impose strict penalties for swatting, including up to 20 years in prison if someone is seriously hurt because of a swatting attack.

NAPO Supports Effort to Fight Opioids in Our Communities

Law enforcement officers are on the frontlines of the opioid epidemic ravaging communities across the country. This crisis manifests itself in the communities we serve and, despite action taken over the years to combat the opioid crisis, it has gotten worse. In fact, 220 Americans die every day from an opioid-related drug overdose.

NAPO has long fought for resources to support law enforcement’s efforts to combat opioids, including fentanyl and its analogues. We support the HALT Fentanyl Act to the make permanent the current classwide scheduling of all fentanyl-related substances as Schedule 1 drugs under the Controlled Substances Act, the FEND Off Fentanyl Act to enhance current law so U.S. government agencies can more effectively disrupt illicit opioid supply chains and penalize those facilitating the trafficking of fentanyl, and the POWER Act to provide fentanyl screening equipment to law enforcement officers.

As part of our work to fight opioids in our communities, NAPO is also supporting the expedited implementation of the Non-Opioids Prevent Addiction in the Nation (NOPAIN) Act, which was enacted as part of the Fiscal 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act at the end of last year. This Act aims to prevent opioid addiction by increasing access to and use of non-opioid pain management approaches. Unfortunately, the enactment was pushed off until 2025.

The NOPAIN Act is designed to ensure the widespread availability of non-opioid pain management approaches to Medicare patients undergoing an outpatient surgical procedure in any setting. In doing so, this law will minimize unnecessary exposure to opioid painkillers, reducing rates of opioid addiction after surgery and in the process, saving lives. NAPO sent a letter to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, urging the immediate implementation of this important law.

We must hit the opioid epidemic from all sides and reducing the amount of people exposed to opioids in the first place will play a vital role, which is why we cannot wait until 2025 for the NOPAIN Act to be implemented. 

NAPO Opposes FDA Ban on Menthol Cigarettes

On June 13, NAPO sent a letter to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf opposing the Administration’s proposed ban on menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars.  NAPO’s objection to the ban is that it will force our rank-and-file officers to become embroiled in the enforcement of bans on street-level sales of cigarettes.  This risks alienating community members, while also diverting scarce resources from more urgent criminal matters. 

Last year, NAPO joined other national law enforcement organizations in a joint letter opposing the ban and asking for a seat at the table as the FDA continued to consider the ban. The FDA pushed off implementing the ban until at least August to give stakeholders additional time to comment on the proposed rules, but it has yet to bring law enforcement to the table.

NAPO’s Legislative Positions & Sponsor/Cosponsor Updates

NAPO’s updated “Sponsor/Cosponsor” spreadsheet is available on NAPO’s website. The spreadsheet accompanies the latest “Legislative Positions” document, which is also available on the NAPO website. NAPO's Legislative Positions is a document that highlights all the legislation that we have taken an official position on or are monitoring during the 118th Congress. It is continually updated to reflect the work we are doing on Capitol Hill.

The “Sponsor/Cosponsor” spreadsheet is a useful tool to check if your members of Congress have supported pieces of legislation that will impact our members. NAPO updates this spreadsheet regularly and continues to ensure our voice is heard on Capitol Hill.