Washington Watch: Legislative Update
For the Week of 21 September 2009
 
I.      Legislative News and Activity  
II.     This Week in Congress
III.    Update on FOP Top Legislative Priorities
IV.     Update on LEOSA

I.      LEGISLATIVE NEWS AND ACTIVITY

Legislative Liaison Bill Fitzpatrick met with staff in the office of Representative David Loebsack (D-IA) to discuss H.R. 675, the “Department of Defense and Civilian Law Enforcement Coordination Act.”

II.  THIS WEEK IN CONGRESS

Both the House and Senate were in session this week.

Action in the House
The House considered and passed H.R. 2918, a bill making appropriations for the legislative branch for the fiscal year ending 30 September 2010 on a 217-190 vote.  In addition to funding the legislative branch for fiscal year 2010, the legislation also funds the Federal government through the month of October.
 
Action in House Committees
The Committee on the Judiciary’s Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Subcommittee held a hearing on the reauthorization of certain sections of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Action in the Senate
The Senate considered, amended, and passed H.R. 2996, a bill making appropriations for the Department of the Interior, Environment and related agencies for the fiscal year ending 30 September 2010 on a 77-21 vote.  The measure will return to the House.

Action in Senate Committees
The Committee on Finance began its markup of draft health care overhaul legislation. Staff in the National Legislative Office are monitoring developments.

III.  UPDATE ON FOP 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. 235/S. 484, the "Social Security Fairness Act"
We currently have three hundred and four (304) cosponsors on H.R. 235, --more than a House majority!  Please note that this total differs slightly from THOMAS, as we are not including in our count Delegates Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-Guam) and Gregorio Sablan (D-MP), who have limited voting rights on the floor.
 
We have twenty-nine (29) cosponsors on S. 484

(2)  Opposing any legislation that would require the participation of public employees in Social Security
The FOP will continue to lobby against this scheme and oppose any legislation which would mandate participation in Social Security.

B.  Support H.R. 413/S. 1611, the "Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act"
We currently have one hundred and forty-five (145) cosponsors on H.R. 413.

We currently have eight (8) cosponsors on S. 1611.

C.  Support H.R. 1972, the "Law Enforcement Officer’s Procedural Bill of Rights Act"

We currently have two (2) cosponsors on H.R. 1972.

The Senate companion bill has not yet been introduced.

IV.     UPDATE ON LEGISLATION AMENDING LEOSA

We added one (1) cosponsor, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), to S. 1132, bringing our current total to three (3).

Staff in the National Legislative Office and in the office of Representative J. Randy Forbes (R-VA) finalized the draft for the House companion bill.  It is possible that the bill will be introduced before the House goes into recess for the weekend.  If not, Representative Forbes will introduce the bill early next week.