Washington Watch: Legislative Update
For the Week of 9 September 2013

I.               Legislative News and Activity
II.     This Week in Congress
III.    Update on Top Legislative Priorities
IV.     FOP Scores Victories in Last Week Before Recess
V.      NFOP PAC Coffee Bar at Conference!
VI.     Enter the FOP Foundation Raffle for the chance to win a gun!

     
I.      LEGISLATIVE NEWS AND ACTIVITY
National President Canterbury was in Washington, D.C. this week for at a meeting with D. Anthony West, Associate Attorney General of the United States and Joshua A. Erdheimer, Acting Director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing to discuss the FOP's public safety priorities.  Executive Jim Pasco also attended.

Executive Director Pasco represented the FOP at a law enforcement stakeholder meeting with U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. to express our views and perspectives on the current direction of public safety policy.

Executive Director Pasco attended an event hosted by Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, to bid farewell to his long-time chief counsel, Bruce Cohen.

Senior Legislative Liaison Tim Richardson held a conference call with Senate Judiciary Committee staff and other stakeholder groups to discuss efforts to move H.R. 180/S. 357, the "National Blue Alert Act."


II.     THIS WEEK IN CONGRESS
Both the House and the Senate returned to session after the August recess.


Action in the House
The House considered and passed H.R. 2275, which would condition the provision of premium and cost-sharing subsidies under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act upon a certification that a program to verify household income and other qualifications for such subsidies is operational.

The House considered and passed H.R. 2844, the "Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act," which would improve Congressional oversight of th Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on a 415-0 vote.  The bill now goes to the Senate for further action.

Action in House Committee
The Committee on the Judiciary considered and favorable reported H.R. 2922, which would extend the authority of the Supreme Court Police to protect court officials away from the Supreme Court grounds, by voice vote.  The bill is now pending before the House.

Action in the Senate
The Senate debated S. J. Res. 21, a resolution authorizing the use of military force against the Syrian government.

Action in Senate Committees
The Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing entitled "Conflicts between State and Federal Marijuana Laws."  James M. Cole, Deputy Attorney General of the United States, testified before the Committee.


III.       UPDATE ON TOP LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES
For the complete list of cosponsors for all of our top legislative priorities, or to find out if your Representative and Senators are cosponsors of specific bills, check out http://thomas.loc.gov.

A.  Support H.R. 1362/S. 1172, the "Law Enforcement Officers' Equity Act"
We have 18 cosponsors on H.R. 1362.

The Senate companion bill, S. 1172, has no cosponsors at this time.

B.  Support H.R. 1795/S. 896, the "Security Fairness Act"
We added 4 cosponsors to H.R. 1795, bringing our current total to 92.

We added 1 cosponsor to S. 896, bringing our current total to 13.


C.  Support Section 1031 of S. 1034, the " National Defense Authorization Act" to grant Statutory Arrest Authority to Civilian DoD Law Enforcement
The legislation, S. 1034, the "National Defense Authorization Act, 2014" contains language crafted in part by the FOP that would allow the U.S. Secretary of Defense to grant statutory arrest authority to its civilian law enforcement officers.  This language can be found in Section 1031.