House passes Thin Blue Line Act
On May 18, the House passed the Thin Blue Line
Act by a bipartisan vote of 271-143, with 48 Demo-
crats voting for the bill. The bill makes the targeting
of, attempted killing or killing of a police officer,
firefighter or first responder an aggravating factor in
death penalty determinations in federal court. This
would be applicable whether an officer was targeted
or murdered on duty, because of the performance of their duty or
because of their status as a public official. The only requirement
is that the homicide provide federal jurisdiction.
A tepid response to the murders of police officers does noth-
ing to discourage future attacks, which is why legislation like the
Thin Blue Line Act is so important. NAPO strongly believes that
establishing stricter penalties for those who harm or target for
harm law enforcement officers will deter violent crimes and add
another layer of safety for the nation’s law enforcement officers.
Congress passes PSOB Improvement Act
On May 17, Congress unanimously passed the Public Safe-
ty Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) Improvement Act, a bipartisan bill
sponsored by Senators Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Kirsten
Gillibrand (D-New York). This Act will tackle the issues of trans-
parency and timeliness of case determinations within the PSOB
program, as well as protect the ability of survivors, disabled offi-
cers and their families to get the benefits they so rightly deserve.
The Act will return the PSOB Program to a presumptive benefit
and restore the “substantial weight” standard that requires PSOB
to give substantial weight to the findings of federal, state and lo-
cal agencies as to the cause of the public safety officer’s death or
disability. It will ensure that children of fallen or disabled pub-
lic safety officers will still be eligible for education benefits if an
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adjudication delay causes them to age out of benefit
eligibility before their claim is approved. It also will
increase transparency through weekly and quarterly
public reports on the status of claims.
Two NAPO-supported child exploitation bills pass
The House passed the Targeting Child Preda-
tors Act sponsored by Congressman Ron DeSantis
(R-Florida) on May 22. When child exploitation investigators are
able to obtain an IP address of a suspected predator, they can
request, through an administrative subpoena process or a court
order, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to turn over the user in-
formation attached to that IP address. ISPs typically comply with
the request; however, they often turn around and inform the user,
or in this case, the suspected child predator, that they are under
investigation by law enforcement. Predators immediately react
by wiping their accounts clean and often disappearing, leaving
law enforcement empty-handed.
The Targeting Child Predators Act addresses this issue by re-
quiring that in specific and serious cases of child exploitation,
ISPs wait 180 days before disclosing to the specific user that their
information was requested by law enforcement.
The House also passed the Protecting Against Child Exploita-
tion Act, sponsored by Congressman Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana),
on May 25. This legislation closes a loophole created by a ruling in
the U.S. Court of Appeals that allowed for an admitted child abus-
er to escape federal punishment because the perpetrator lacked
the requisite intent when he took a picture of the assault on his
phone. This bill would ensure that the knowing consent of the vi-
sual depiction or live transmission of a minor engaged in sexually
explicit conduct is criminalized and appropriately punished. d