I.      LEGISLATIVE NEWS AND ACTIVITY

Executive Director Jim Pasco met with Bart Johnson, Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security, concerning fusion centers.


Senior Legislative Liaison Tim Richardson and Legislative Liaison Jon Gentile met with Senator James H. Webb, Jr. (D-VA) and staff regarding S. 714, the “National Criminal Justice Commission Act.”


Legislative Liaison Gentile participated in a meeting of law enforcement and drug prevention stakeholder organizations to discuss marijuana policy.



II.  THIS WEEK IN CONGRESS

Both the House and Senate were in session this week.

Action in the House
The House is expected to consider H.R. 3962, the “Affordable Health Care for America Act,” over the weekend.  This legislation does not include the “High Cost Insurance Excise Tax” or any provision that would directly or indirectly tax the health benefits of law enforcement officers.  The Senate is not expected to debate health care legislation on the floor in the coming weeks.


The House considered and passed H.R. 3639, the “Expedited CARD Reform for Consumers Act,” on a 331-92 vote. This legislation would make new credit card rules (PL 111-24) enacted this year take effect immediately rather than early next year. PL 111-24 bars interest rate increases on existing balances unless a cardholder has failed to make even a minimum payment for 60 days. It outlaws double-cycle billing, requires notice 45 days before any interest rate increase, and prohibits interest rate increases anytime in the first year an account is activated.

 

Action in House Committees
The Committee on the Judiciary favorably reported H.R. 3845, the “USA PATRIOT Amendments Act,” on a 16-10 vote.  The FOP raised concerns about Section 107, which would have limited the ability of law enforcement to conduct surveillance.  In response to these concerns a bipartisan group of committee members introduced and passed an Amendment which removed the section.


Action in the Senate
The Senate considered, amended, and, passed of H.R. 2847, a bill making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, and Science and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending 30 September 2010, and for other purposes, on a 71-28 vote.

The Senate also considered, amended, and passed H.R. 3548, the “Unemployment Compensation Extension Act,” on a 98-0 vote.  This legislation will provide for the temporary availability of certain additional emergency unemployment compensation.  The House also cleared the measure.

Action in Senate Committees
The Committee on the Judiciary was scheduled to mark-up S. 714 in an Executive Session attended by both Executive Director Pasco and Senior Legislative Liaison Richardson, but action on that bill was postponed.

 

The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs also held a hearing titled “Business Formation and Financial Crime: Finding a Legislative Solution.”  The hearing focused on S. 569, the “Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Assistance Act,” which the FOP supports.



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 seven (307) 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), Pierluisi, Pedro R. D-PR), and Gregorio Sablan (D-MP), who have limited voting rights on the floor.

We currently have thirty (30) 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 seventy-two (172) cosponsors on H.R. 413, bringing


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 three (three) cosponsors to H.R. 3752, bringing our current total to six (6).  The bill is similar in most respects to the Senate companion bill, S. 1132.  The House bill includes language that would also clarify the status of Federal Reserve Police as well as retired military personnel that served as law enforcement officers in their respective branch of service.  We will continue to work with Rep. Forbes' office to get this bill moved through subcommittee.

We have three (3) cosponsors on S. 1132.


V.    FOP NEWS: IRS FURTHER DELAYS IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW RULE ON “NORMAL RETIREMENT AGE”

Chuck Canterbury, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, welcomed last week’s news that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has again delayed implementation of a new rule which would have negatively impacted law enforcement officers by creating a new definition of “normal retirement age.”

 

“We expected this,” Canterbury said.  “We’ve been working in concert with other stakeholder groups since the rule was proposed and, in fact, will be meeting with IRS officials in a few weeks to talk about this and other issues.”

 

Defined benefit plans of State and local governments typically define their normal retirement age as the date or age when participants qualify for normal or unreduced retirement benefits under the plan.  Typically, this age is tied to years of service, usually ranging from 20 to 25 years.  The Federal government has never prohibited this practice for governmental pension plans.  In fact, the IRS routinely approved service-based normal retirement ages through the determination letter process.  However, a new rule, proposed in 2007, would require a pension plan’s normal retirement age to be an age that is “not earlier than the earliest age that is reasonably representative of the typical retirement age for the industry in which the covered workforce is employed.”  For plans in which “substantially all” of the participants are public safety officers, the new “normal retirement age” would be 50. 

 

“This rule was originally to have gone into effect in January of this year,” Canterbury explained.  “But efforts by the FOP and others pushed back the implementation to 2011 and, last week, the IRS announced they were going to further delay the implementation of the rule until 2013.  It is our goal to remove this provision entirely from the regulations.”

 

Had the rule gone into effect, it would have had an immediate and certainly very negative impact on many individuals as well as pension plans, many of which are governed by State statutes or State Constitutions and others which could be part of an existing labor contracts.

 

You can view a copy of IRS Notice 2009-86 on the IRS website: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-09-86.pdf