Help officers affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma
Todd Harrison, NAPO’ s national secretary and the president of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas( CLEAT), is on the scene of the devastation in South Texas and has already been providing direct relief to all officers affected. He is not asking whether they are CLEAT members or not, only whether they need help.
Right now, Harrison says they are receiving abundant donations of T-shirts, underwear, socks, hygiene products and dry clothes. He anticipates needing more, however, in a week or two. In the meantime, NAPO’ s Relief Fund is up and running. Please consider making your most generous monetary donation. One hundred percent of donations will be used to provide direct financial relief to the officers affected. NAPO relies on the local unions and associations to confirm the damage and losses and will immediately cut checks to the officers. Visit www. napo. org to find the direct donations link for the NAPO Relief Fund
NAPO supports amendment to fund COPS Hiring
The House continues to press forward with moving its fiscal 2018 omnibus appropriations measure, spending the past week
24 NEW JERSEY COPS ■ SEPTEMBER 2017
debating the bill and amendments, and continuing the debate through this week. The measure includes all 12 of the appropriations bills, four of which have already passed the House.
Despite the president’ s including $ 207 million for the COPS Hiring Program, an increase over the fiscal 2017 funding level, House appropriators decided to eliminate the program in the spending measure despite its importance to the nation’ s law-enforcement community. To rectify this wrong, NAPO worked with Congressmen Bill Pascrell( D-New Jersey) and Dave Reichert( R-Washington), the co-chairs of the House Law Enforcement Caucus, to introduce an amendment to H. R. 3354 to provide $ 100 million in funding for the COPS Hiring Program. NAPO sent a letter to all members of Congress urging them to support this amendment and ensure that the COPS Hiring Program remains strong and robust.
While the COPS Hiring Program was eliminated, the spending measure is strong on other law-enforcement grant programs, including NAPO’ s other priority grant programs: the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant( Byrne JAG) Program, the Bulletproof Vest Partnership( BVP) Grant Program and the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act( MIOTCRA).
H. R. 3354 would fund Byrne JAG at $ 500 million, which is almost double the president’ s proposal and $ 24 million more than fiscal 2017. The BVP Grant Program remains steady at $ 22.5 million, as does MIOTCRA at $ 12 million. The spending measure also includes $ 20 million for the Adam Walsh Act, $ 103 million to fight opioids, $ 11 million for anti-meth programs through the COPS office and $ 10 million for active-shooter police training.
With the end of the 2017 fiscal year quickly approaching on Sept. 30, Congress gave itself more time to hammer out fiscal 2018 appropriations by passing a continuing resolution( CR) to fund the federal government at FY 2017 levels through Dec. 8. The CR also included $ 15.25 billion in aid for victims of Hurricane Harvey and other natural disasters and suspended the national debt limit until Dec. 8.
Senate passes Children of Fallen Heroes Scholarship Act
In a victory for NAPO, the Senate passed the Children of Fallen Heroes Scholarship Act by voice vote on Sept. 7. Senators Bob Casey( D-Pennsylvania) and Pat Toomey( R-Pennsylvania) sponsored the bill, which would eliminate the expected family contribution( EFC) used to determine financial need in the case of a Pell Grant – eligible student whose parent or guardian died in the line of duty. Additionally, children of public-safety officers who died in the line of duty would qualify for the maximum Pell Grant award($ 5,920 for 2017 – 2018) if he or she was less than 24 years old or enrolled at an institution of higher education at the time of the parent or guardian’ s death. A federal Pell Grant, unlike a loan, does not have to be repaid. Pell Grants usually are awarded only to undergraduate students who have not earned a bachelor’ s or a professional degree. d