The Weekly Legislative Update
For the Week of 13 February 2006
 
In This Week’s Edition
 
I.   This Week in Congress
II.  Update on F.O.P. Top Legislative Priorities
III.      Day on the Hill Legislative Briefing News!
III.     Update on the USA PATRIOT Act
IV.      Update on the Pension Legislation
V.       Other Legislative Activity


I.   THIS WEEK IN CONGRESS

There will be no Legislative Update next week, as Congress will be in recess in observance of the President's Day Holiday.

Action in the House
The House passed H.R. 4745, a supplemental appropriations bill that would reallocate $712 million from funds appropriated to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) following hurricanes Katrina and Rita to the Small Business Administration (SBA) to cover administrative costs of providing SBA disaster relief loans.

The House also considered a handful of resolutions under a suspension of the rules, including H. Con. Res. 341, which condemns the Government of Iran "for violating its international nuclear nonproliferation obligations and expressing support for efforts to report Iran to the United Nations Security Council."


Action in the Senate
The Senate began its week with the consideration of a series of motions to instruct its conferees before those conferees were appointed to the committee to reconcile the House- and Senate-passed versions of H.R. 4297, the tax reconciliation bill.

The Senate also considered S. 852, the "Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act."  A point of order was raised to object to the consideration of the bill under the budget rules, and the point of order was sustained when the motion to waive the point fell one short of the 60 votes needed.  One Senator, however, did not vote, and the motion may be reconsidered at a future time.

On Thursday, the Senate voted 96-3 on a motion to proceed to the consideration of S. 2271, the "USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act."  See below for additional details.


II. UPDATE ON F.O.P. TOP LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES

For the complete list of cosponsors for all of our top legislative priorities, or to find out if your Representative and Senators are cosponsors of specific bills, check out http://thomas.loc.gov .
 
A.       SOCIAL SECURITY ISSUES:

(1)  Support H.R. 147/S. 619, the "Social Security Fairness Act"

We added two (2) new cosponsors to H.R. 147, bringing our current total to three hundred and three (303) cosponsors--more than a two-thirds majority of the U.S. House of Representatives. Please note that this total differs slightly from THOMAS, as we are not including in our count Representatives Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA), who has resigned his seat, and Robert Menendez, who resigned his seat after his appointment to the U.S. Senate.  Also not included in our total are Delegates Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Luis Fortuno (R-PR), who are non-voting Members of the House.

The National Legislative Office's list of previous cosponsors--eleven (11) Republicans and three (3) Democrats--appears below.  We continue to ask F.O.P. members in those Members' districts to make contact with their Representative and urge them to show their support for law enforcement by cosponsoring H.R. 147. 

Cosponsors of H.R. 594, 108th Congress who have not yet signed on to H.R. 147, 109th Congress (13 House Members: 10 Republicans and 3 Democrats as of 17 February 2006)

ARIZONA
Renzi

FLORIDA
Brown-Waite

GEORGIA
Deal

ILLINOIS
Hyde

INDIANA
Chocola

KENTUCKY
Whitfield
Northrup
Rogers

NEW YORK
Towns

OKLAHOMA
Cole

PENNSYLVANIA
Peterson

TEXAS
Jackson-Lee

WASHINGTON
McDermott

We currently have twenty-three (23) cosponsors on S. 619.

(2)  Opposing any legislation that would require the participation of public employees in Social Security

To date, no legislation has been introduced with a provision that would mandate the inclusion in Social Security of public employees currently not in the system.
 

B.  Support H.R. 1249/S. 513, the "Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act"

We added four (4) new cosponsors to H.R. 1249, bringing our current total to ninety-five (95). Please note that this total differs slightly from THOMAS, as we are not including in our count Delegate Donna M. Christensen (D-VI), who is a non-voting Member of the House.

We currently have nineteen (19) cosponsors on S. 513.


C.  Support H.R. 354/S. 718, the "State and Local Law Enforcement Officers' Discipline, Accountability, and Due Process Act"

We currently have twenty-four (24) cosponsors on H.R. 354.  Please note that this total differs slightly from THOMAS, as we are not including in our count Representative Robert Menedez, who resigned his seat after his appointment to the U.S. Senate. 

We currently have eight (8) cosponsors on S. 718.


III.  DAY ON THE HILL LEGISLATIVE BRIEFING TIME AND LOCATION

The National Legislative Office and the National Legislative Committee will host a short briefing on our legislative agenda for all Day on the Hill participants at 2pm on Monday, 27 February at the District of Columbia Lodge #1.  The lodge is located  at 711 4th Street, NW.  The briefing will last approximately ninety (90) minutes.


IV.  UPDATE ON THE REAUTHORIZATION OF THE USA PATRIOT ACT

This week the Senate considered S. 2271, the "USA PATRIOT Act Additional Reauthorizing Amendments Act," which would make three minor changes to the USA PATRIOT Act:

• an explicit judicial review process for the 215 subpoena gag order;
• an elimination of the requirement that the recipient of a National Security Letter disclose the name of their attorney to the FBI;
•  a clarification to National Security Letters as they pertain to libraries.

Consideration of the bill was blocked, forcing the Majority Leader to file a motion proceed.  The motion passed on a 96-3 vote.  The bill will be subject to a filibuster, and the Senate is expected to vote on cloture when they return to session on 28 February.  The cloture motion is expected to pass easily and a final vote on S. 2271 would take place the following day, 1 March.  The bill would then be taken up by the House.

Once S. 2271 has been passed, enough of the Senators that supported the successful filibuster against the conference report on H.R. 3199, the "USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act" would change their votes and allow the Senate to vote on the conference report and, once passed, the measure would be cleared for the President's signature.


V.  UPDATE ON THE PENSION LEGISLATION

Congress is preparing to send pension legislation to a conference committee to reconcile the differences between the Senate bill, S. 1783, the "Pension Security and Transparency Act," and the House bill, the "Pension Protection Act."

The Senate legislation contains a provision that the F.O.P. strongly supports--the elimination of the ten percent (10%) early withdrawal penalty from a governmental defined benefit plan for public safety officers.  In many of our nation’s communities, law enforcement and other public safety officers have the option of serving beyond the standard twenty-year retirement by participating in Deferred Retirement Option Plans (DROP).  This encourages experienced police officers to remain on the force and allows them to accrue benefits for up to an additional ten years while remaining an active employee.

Under current law, a law enforcement officer who leaves active service before the age of 55 and opts to receive a lump-sum payment under DROP before the age of 59 ½ is subjected to an early withdrawal penalty of ten percent (10%).  Given that law enforcement is a dangerous and physically demanding line of work and that many police officers retire from active duty prior to age 55, the F.O.P. has argued that this type of penalty has a disparate impact on law enforcement officers.  Section 1004 of S. 1783 contains language which would eliminate the ten percent (10%) withdrawal penalty for officers over the age of fifty (50).

The House legislation, H.R. 2830, contains a similar provision, but it lacks the clarity of the Senate language and may not be applicable to all DROP plans.  The F.O.P. is lobbying for retention of the Senate language on this matter.

The House bill, H.R. 2830, does contain language identical to H.R. 2177, the “Healthcare Enhancement for Local Public Safety (HELPS) Retirees Act,” whereas the Senate version of the legislation does not.  The "HELPS Retirees" bill, strongly backed by the F.O.P.,  would provide a modest tax benefit to help retired public safety officers afford health insurance by allowing the use, on a pre-tax basis, of up to $5,000 annually from their pension funds (including defined benefit plans and defined contribution plans) to pay for premiums on health care and long-term care insurance.

The National Legislative Office has waged an intense lobbying campaign in favor of retaining the "HELPS Retirees Act" in the final pension package.

The Senate was to have appointed its conferees to the conference committee this week, but disagreements over the the number of Republican and Democratic conferees derailed that effort.  We anticipate that the Senate will name its conferees when it returns to session after the President's Day recess and that the House will quickly follow suit once the Senate conferees are named.


VI.  OTHER LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY
 
National President Chuck Canterbury and Executive Director Jim Pasco met with Senator William H. Frist, MD (R-TN), the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate and Vice Admiral Richard H. Carmona, the Surgeon General of the United States in Nashville, TN, who addressed the F.O.P.'s Leadership Matters seminar last weekend.  Executive Director Pasco and the Surgeon General then accompanied Senator Frist on a second speaking engagement before returning with him to Washington, D.C. on Sunday.

Executive Director Pasco met with Joseph W. Hagin, Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House to discuss the F.O.P.'s legislative priorities.

Executive Director Pasco met with Scott Jennings, Deputy Director of Political Affairs at the White House, to discuss Congressional endorsements.

Senior Legislative Liaison Tim Richardson represented the F.O.P. at the quarterly meeting of the Justice Department's Less Lethal Technology Working Group.

Senior Legislative Liaison Richardson met with a working group dealing with issues related to the use and purchase of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Legislative Liaison Legislative Liaison Alan D. Dodkowitz met with the Program Executive Officers (PEO) to discuss changes to the implementing issuances of the National Security Personnel System (NSPS).

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