THE WASHINGTON REPORT
WASHINGTON REPORT
H.R. 82 UPDATE; ELECTION RESULTS; PLEA DEAL FOR 9/11 TERRORISTS; NDAA PRIORITIES
Freedom Caucus Tries to Kill Social Security Fairness Act
On Election Day, during a “pro forma” session in the House of Representative, while no one else was present, and while the nation was focused on the elections, Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris (R-MD), who was temporarily “presiding” over the session, recognized former Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good (R-VA)(the only other member present) for a unanimous consent request to lay H.R. 82, the Social Security Fairness Act, on the table, essentially defeating the bill for the time being. During this act, the House parliamentarian was audibly telling Rep. Harris that he could not accept Rep. Good’s motion and yet they continued with their devious maneuver. These two members of congress, acting alone and against long-standing House policies, attempted to thwart our efforts to restore the retirement security of millions of public servants simply because they do not like the bill – a bill that 330 of their fellow lawmakers support and have cosponsored. The arrogance of this sneaky move is astonishing, even by Capitol Hill standards.
NAPO has been engaged since Reps. Harris and Good made this move at 5pm on Election Day. House leadership, both Republican and Democrat, have a strong incentive to fix this or there will be other lawmakers who decide to go rogue during pro forma sessions for their own political interests.
Our discharge petition was on the rule for consideration of H.R. 82 and not the bill itself, so Congressman Garret Graves (R-LA) and Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), the bill’s sponsors, can still call the rule up for a vote, which, if adopted, would allow for consideration of the bill. This is just one avenue to get around the actions of Representatives Harris and Good. Another way that House leadership is considering is allowing Graves and Spanberger to introduce an identical bill and allow that to be used in place of HR 82 and continue to honor the discharge petition. House leadership also has some parliamentary moves it could take. Discussions are ongoing about which path will be the easiest and most successful and that has leadership support.
We are supporting every effort to bring the bill to the floor and are confident that next week we will have a successful vote on H.R. 82 in the House. We will continue to keep you updated on the status of H.R. 82.
NAPO was quoted in a November 5, CQ Roll Call article on the pro forma session maneuver entitled “Social Security bill bottled up after election night maneuver”:
“The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would cost $196 billion over a decade and move up the date of the Social Security trust funds’ exhaustion by six months. The bill’s backers argue six months isn’t that significant considering Congress was already going to have to intervene sometime around 2034, and that even the advertised price tag is misleading.
Rather than taxpayer dollars being wasted, the cost represents money ‘taken out of the hard-earned monthly Social Security checks of retired law enforcement officers, teachers, nurses, and bus drivers over the next 10 years,’ according to the National Association of Police Organizations, which has been lobbying for the measure.”
Please continue to reach out to your Representative(s) to urge them to stand with us in support H.R. 82. You can find the contact information for staff for every office here and a one-pager on the Social Security Fairness Act here.
Ove in the Senate, over 40 NAPO member organizations penned a letter to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) urging him to take up H.R. 82 as soon as it passes the House next week. NAPO appreciates the advocacy of our members, who are essential to the success of our work!
Please contact Andy Edmiston, NAPO’s Director of Governmental Affairs, at aedmiston@napo.org or (703) 549-0775 if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for your efforts to help us finally get H.R. 82 across the finish line!
President Trump Wins Re-Election; Republicans Take the Senate, while the House Still Undecided
President Donald Trump decisively won a second term as President of the United States on November 5. NAPO was the first national law enforcement organization to endorse President Trump. We look forward to working with him and his administration to continue that support for America’s law enforcement officers and ensure that our officers have the backing, resources, and tools necessary to effectively serve and protect our communities. NAPO President Mick McHale sent President Trump a congratulatory letter on November 6.
Republicans also won control of the Senate, which will be invaluable to President Trump as his Cabinet appointees and judicial nominees will have a clear path to confirmation, allowing his administration to more easily shape policies that do not need Congressional action. As for the House, at the time of writing this report, there are still too many undecided races to officially call it, but it is trending towards Republicans maintaining a slim majority.
As of today, Republicans have won 210 seats in the House, while Democrats have won 198, with the remaining races undecided. A party needs 218 seats to win a majority, and it may be another week before we know which party has control of the House in the 119th Congress. No matter which party wins, it is expected to be a narrow majority.
If Republicans maintain the majority in the House, President Trump will have a significantly easier time enacting all his policy priorities, but there will still be difficulties. Without a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and a small majority in the House, Republicans will have to work in lockstep across both chambers to accomplish the President’s agenda. There may even need to be some compromise to get more partisan legislation through the Senate. Either way, if Republicans control Congress, expect the first significant order of business in the 119th Congress to be a major legislative package to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts.
Congress is set to return on November 12, with just five legislative weeks to fund the federal government, pass the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), take up a supplemental emergency funding measure in response to the devastation left behind by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and vote on the Social Security Fairness Act, among other must-do issues. There is a chance that President-elect Trump will support another continuing resolution to fund the federal government into early 2025 to get his stamp on the remaining appropriations for Fiscal 2025.
Once it is determined which party will control the House in the 119th Congress, NAPO will send out an overview of what that could mean for our members and our legislative priorities.
NAPO President Mick McHale Pens Letter Objecting to Reinstatement of Plea Deal for 9/11 Terrorists
NAPO President Mick McHale sent a letter to the Secretary of Defense, the President, the President-elect, the chief prosecutor, and the trial judge of the Military Commission Trial of admitted 9/11 terrorists on November 7, 2024, in response to the judge’s decision to validate the terrorists’ plea deals.
This past August, it was discovered that the federal authorities, in secret, had been working out plea deals with these terrorists for something like two years, without any meaningful input from victims and their families. NAPO objected then, and the Secretary of Defense withdrew the offer, and fired the Pentagon official who had extended the offer.
Yesterday, the trial judge ruled that the withdrawal of the offer by the Secretary of Defense was too little, too late. Basically, the trial judge issued an order saying that the official who made the offer had the authority to do so when she did it. And that Secretary of Defense’s reversal and firing of the official was too late to revoke the offer, which had already been accepted by three defendants.
One of the most infuriating things about this whole mess is that the trial judge’s opinion reinstating the plea deals is more than 20 pages long, meaning he did not write this after Election Day 48 hours ago. He must have had this drafted already and withheld its release until after Election Day.
In his letter, President McHale called on the judge to reconsider this ill-advised and questionably timed opinion and for the prosecution to immediately and vigorously appeal this patent miscarriage of justice. We believe that the Defense Secretary has failed terribly in his primary and non-negotiable duty of defending our nation and the men and women who serve her, and we called on him to do the only honorable thing left within his grasp and resign.
NAPO Continues to Press for Inclusion of NDAA Priorities
The House and Senate have been negotiating the final Fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) behind the scenes during the recess, working out the differences between the House-passed NDAA and the Senate Armed Services Committee draft NDAA.
NAPO successfully secured the inclusion of two of our priority amendments in the Senate and House versions of the NDAA. In the Senate, we secured the inclusion of the Law Enforcement and Victim Support Act, offered by Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Jon Ossoff (D-GA). This amendment is comprised of nine bills that passed unanimously out of the Senate, including several NAPO priority bills: Fighting PTSD Act, American Law Enforcement SAVER Act, Project Safe Neighborhoods Reauthorization Act, Strong Communities Act, and Project Safe Childhood Act. These bills would help protect the mental health and physical wellbeing of law enforcement officers, provide resources to address the recruitment crisis the profession is facing, and provide departments tools to fight violent crime and protect our innocent children from exploitation.
In the House version of the NDAA, we successfully got included the Lifesaving Gear for Police Act, offered by Congressman Michael Waltz (R-FL), which would restore state and local law enforcement’s unfettered access to surplus military equipment through the Department of Defense’s 1033 Program and Departments of Justice and Homeland Security grant programs.
Given the Senate did not pass its version of the NDAA, the provisions we won in it are at a disadvantage as the House decides what it will and will not accept. For non-defense related provisions, such as the Law Enforcement and Victim Support Act, House and Senate leadership are relying on the committees of jurisdiction to determine what makes it in. This means we are relying on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to approve the inclusion of this amendment, and we are running up against a House Judiciary Committee that chose not to move any of these Senate-passed bills this Congress.
NAPO met with staff from both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees to press for maintaining these important provisions. In an effort to highlight our priorities, NAPO led a joint national law enforcement letter to House and Senate leadership urging support for their inclusion in the final FY25 NDAA.
One priority that we were not able to secure in either the House or Senate version of the NDAA is the Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act, but we have not given up on moving the bill by the end of this Congress. This bill, sponsored by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Kevin Cramer (R-ND), would recognize carcinogen-related cancers as line of duty injuries under the Department of Justice’s Public Safety Officer’s Benefits (PSOB) Program. In addition to continuing to press for it to be amended into the final negotiated NDAA, we are also working to garner support for including it in an emergency supplemental or the final FY 2025 appropriations measure.
Submit Your TOP COP
Nominations Today!
Please take the time to nominate examples of outstanding police work for this prestigious award. We count on you, our members, to help us get the word about TOP COPS out and obtain nominations for officers nationwide. Join us in honoring America’s Finest by nominating a case today. The nomination form is attached and can be found on our website, and it must be postmarked or faxed to (703) 684-0515 by January 10, 2025. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact NAPO’s Director of Events, Elizabeth Loranger, at elorange@napo.org or (703) 549–0775.
2025 will mark the 32nd year that NAPO has hosted the TOP COPS Awards®. The TOP COP Awards® Dinner will take place May 12, 2025, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, again coinciding with National Police Week. With your help and partnership, the TOP COPS Awards® will continue to be a tremendous success!
Join NAPO at Our 36th Annual Pension & Benefits Seminar
February 2 – 4, 2024
Caesars Palace Hotel & Casino ~ Las Vegas, Nevada
Please join the National Association of Police Organizations at NAPO’s36th Annual Police, Fire, EMS, & Municipal Employee Pension & Benefits Seminar, February 2 – 4, 2025 at the Caesars Palace Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Our seminar has been updated to focus on the results of the 2024 Presidential election and a new Congress in 2025. Greatly increased costs of living appear permanent, and the threat of stagflation remains a cause for concern. The fact that 2024 election will be behind us may lead to stability and growth in equity markets, but the ever-mounting national debt and uncertainty over the new Administration’s economic policies still signal “caution” for many institutional investors and plans. We will continue to address the growing use of AI as well as liability risks & practical advice for fiduciaries. Benefits themselves continue to be viewed as a key component of recruitment and retention. We will examine these areas and more as we evaluate the effect of these trends on public employment benefits and security, and the near- and mid-term future for U.S. and world economic conditions.
Take an active role in improving the future of your fund by registering today. You will find information regarding registration, hotel reservations and the full agenda on NAPO’s website: www.NAPO.org/PB25
If you have any questions or need additional information, please do not hesitate to contact NAPO’s Director of Events, Elizabeth Loranger, at eloranger@napo.org or (703) 549 -0775.
