NAPO Midterm Elections Analysis
How the split in Congress
will affect law enforcement
The midterm elections led to the Democrats winning the
House and Republicans securing their majority in the Senate.
There will be changes to the chairmanships of the various Con-
gressional committees, with Democrats taking over the majority
and chairs of the committees in the House, while the Senate will
have new chairs take over due to retirements.
Here are the changes for the committees with jurisdiction over
NAPO priority legislation:
House
Judiciary: Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) is presumed
to be the next chair. He took over as ranking member of the com-
mittee this Congress when Representative John Conyers (D-MI)
retired. Representative Nadler has been supportive of NAPO’s
efforts to protect public safety officer benefits, reauthorize and
fund our priority grant programs, and establish and reauthorize
the World Trade Center Health Program and 9/11 Victims Com-
pensation Fund.
Ways and Means: Representative Richard Neal (D-MA), cur-
rent ranking member of the committee, is expected to be the
next chair. Regarding NAPO’s priorities, Representative Neal
supports reforming the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and
Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), protecting public safety
retirements, and he opposes mandatory Social Security.
Education and the Workforce: Representative Bobby Scott
(D-VA) will chair this committee. He will be making the Pub-
lic Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act and expanding
public-sector collective bargaining rights a priority.
Senate
Judiciary: Current Senate Judiciary Chair Charles Grassley
(R-IA) is widely expected to take the chair of the Senate Finance
Committee with the retirement of current chair Senator Orrin
Hatch (R-UT). If Senator Grassley does decide to become fi-
nance chair, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) would be the next
chair of the Judiciary Committee. Senator Graham has been a
stalwart supporter of our issues in committee and has shown a
strong interest in protecting and expanding public safety officer
death and disability benefits.
Finance: It is expected that Senator Grassley will move from
the Judiciary Committee to be chair. As a member of the Finance
Committee, Senator Grassley has supported ensuring that pub-
lic safety officers get the benefits they deserve and providing law
enforcement and communities they serve the resources needed
to fight the opioid epidemic. If Senator Grassley remains chair of
the Judiciary Committee, Senator Michael Crapo (R-ID) will take
over as chair of the Finance Committee.
The formal announcements of the new committee chairs
will be coming soon. NAPO looks forward to working with the
new committee chairs in the 116th Congress to ensure that our
nation’s law enforcement officers have the tools, resources and
support it needs to efficiently and effectively serve and protect
our communities.
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www.njcopsmagazine.com
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