Second Session
Updated: December 2020
FLEOA strongly supports legislation
to enhance the performance and effectiveness of federal law enforcement
officers, protect law enforcement pay and benefits, enhance recruitment and
retention, improve officer safety, and strengthen homeland security and the criminal
justice system. Likewise, FLEOA
vigorously opposes any legislative attempt to strip federal law enforcement
officers of their rights to due process, diminish the ability of agencies to
continue to recruit and retain the highest caliber law enforcement personnel,
or otherwise negatively impact the mission of federal law enforcement.
H.R. 1156 (Bacon, R-NE), the "Law
Enforcement Officers Safety Act (LEOSA) Reform Act”—This legislation would
address many of the issues confronting federal law enforcement officers under
LEOSA, including: (1) revise the Gun Free Schools Act to include an exemption
for LEOSA; (2) allow for carrying of a firearm on property otherwise open to
the public and national parks; (3) allow ammunition magazines of any capacity;
and (4) provide multiple options for retired officers to meet the qualification
standards required by LEOSA.
H.R. 1256 (Connolly, D-VA) / S. 531 (Tester,
D-MT), the "First Responder Fair RETIRE Act”—These companion bills are
intended to protect the retirement status for those federal law enforcement
officers who are seriously injured or disabled in the line of duty. Specifically, the bill preserves a disabled
officer’s 6(c)/LEO status even when the nature or extent of an injury prevents
the individual from returning to federal service in a covered law enforcement
position.
H.R. 1866 (Pascrell, D-NJ) / S. 1504
(Tillis, R-NC), the "Probation Officer Protection Act”—This legislation
would provide arrest authority to U.S. Probation Officers for any third party
who assaults, resists, intimidates, or interferes with a Probation Officer in
the performance of their official duties.
S. 4977 (Lankford, R-OK & Sinema, D-AZ),
the "RAS Clarity Act”—S. 4977 corrects the erroneous, extralegal determination by OPM in 2016 concerning the
divisibility of a FERS retirement annuity supplement (RAS) between a retiree
and his/her former spouse. Specifically,
the bill clarifies current law, puts an immediate stop to OPM’s collection
efforts against retirees, and requires the agency to repay every dollar it has
improperly seized.
H.R.
6864 (Cuellar, D-TX) / S. 3732 (Cornyn, R-TX), the "Jaime Zapata and
Victor Avila Federal Law Enforcement Protection Act"—This legislation, named after the Hero ICE
Agents attacked by a Mexican drug cartel in 2011, corrects a recent federal
appellate decision that effectively eliminated the murder conviction for two
cartel members responsible for the death of Agent Zapata by finding that 18
U.S.C. 1114 does not apply extraterritorially.
H.R.
1195 (P. King, R-NY) / S. 473 (Booker, D-NJ), the "Law Enforcement Officers
Equity Act”—This bill would
amend the definition of "law enforcement officer” for retirement purposes to
extend 6(c)/LEO retirement to all law enforcement employees who currently do
not receive it.
The "CI
Realignment Act”—This
legislation would transfer the functions, personnel, assets, and obligations of
the Internal Revenue Service's "Criminal Investigation Division" to a
newly-created "Bureau of Criminal Investigation" within the Treasury
Department. This reorganization would
subject CI to administration by a Senior Executive Federal Law Enforcement
Official as opposed to civilian leadership.
FLEOA
is the largest nonpartisan, nonprofit professional association exclusively
representing nearly 29,000 active and retired federal law enforcement officers
from over 65 different agencies.