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Washington Watch: Legislative Update
For the Week of 18 January 2010
I. Legislative News and Activity
II. This Week in Congress
III. Update on FOP Top Legislative Priorities
IV. Update on LEOSA
V. LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: Health Care Bill
VI. FOP NEWS : Zylon Settlement Benefits Vest Program
VII. FOP NEWS : Death Penalty for Alabama Murderer Upheld
VIII. FOP NEWS : Mumia Abu-Jamal Loses at the Supreme Court... Again
IX. DAY ON THE HILL 2010!
I. LEGISLATIVE NEWS AND ACTIVITY
Executive Director Jim Pasco hosted a fundraiser for Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, at his home. National President Chuck Canterbury attended the event and met with the Chairman. Jon Gentile, director of the NFOP PAC was also present at the event.
Executive Director Pasco met with Alan Hoffman, Deputy Chief of Staff to Vice President Joseph R Biden, Jr., and Andrew Kline, the Vice President’s Senior Advisor for Crime Policy and discussed a range of criminal justice and labor issues.
Senior Legislative Liaison Tim Richardson met with Doug Ierley, counsel to Senator James H. Webb, Jr. (D-VA) to discuss S. 714, the "National Criminal Justice Commission Act," which was amended and favorably reported by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Thursday.
Senior Legislative Liaison Richardson represented the FOP on a White House-sponsored conference call on U.S. relief efforts in Haiti.
Senior Legislative Liaison Richardson and Legislative Liaison Bill Fitzpatrick represented the FOP at a reception hosted by the National Sheriffs Association.
II. THIS WEEK IN CONGRESS
Both the House and the Senate were in session this week.
The special election in Massachusetts resulted in the election of State Senator Scott Brown, a Republican, who will be sworn in to replace Paul G. Kirk, a Democrat appointed to the seat temporarily following the death of Edward M. Kennedy last summer. Senator-elect Brown is likely to be sworn in soon.
Action in the House
The House considered and passed H.R. 4462, legislation that would allow taxpayers to claim deductions for donations to Haiti earthquake relief efforts on their 2009 tax returns if they are made before March 1. The bill was also cleared by the Senate and is expected to be signed by the President.
Representatives Robert E. Latta (R-OH) and T. Timothy Holden (D-PA) introduced H.R. 4466, legislation that the FOP helped craft, that would amend the Hatch Act to allow local and State law enforcement officers to be candidates for the office of Sheriff and permit Sheriffs to engage in political activity.
Action in House Committees
The Committee on Homeland Security held another hearing on the White House state dinner security breach with Tareq and Michaele Salahi, who appeared, but did not answer questions citing their rights under the Fifth amendment
Action in the Senate
The Senate began consideration of H.J. Res. 45, a joint resolution increasing the statutory limit on the public debt.
Action in Senate Committees
The Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a hearing on the thwarted bombing attempt against Northwest Flight 253 on 25 December 2009, with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair, and National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter.
The Senate Committee on the Judiciary considered, amended and favorably reported an amendment in the nature of a substitute to S. 714 the “National Criminal Justice Commission Act,” by voice vote. The FOP, which did not support the legislation as originally introduced, worked long and hard with the staff of the bill's sponsor, Senator Webb, and that of Chairman Leahy to craft language that the FOP could support. The substitute amendment that passed the Committee this week was the result of those efforts and, if enacted, would establish a commission to review the criminal justice system in the United States.
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 added one (1) cosponsor to H.R. 235, bringing our current total to three hundred and ten (310)--more than a House majority! Please note that this total differs slightly from THOMAS, as we are not including in our count former Representatives John M. McHugh (R-NY) and Ellen O. Tauscher (D-CA), who resigned to take positions in the Administration or Delegates Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-Guam) and Gregorio Sablan (D-MP), who have limited voting rights on the floor.
We currently have twenty-nine (29) cosponsors on S. 484. Please note that this total differs slightly from THOMAS, as we are not including in our count Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), who died last year.
(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 added four (4) cosponsors on H.R. 413, bringing our current total to one hundred and eighty-sven (187) cosponsors on H.R. 413, and need only thirty-one (31) additional cosponsors to reach a House majority! Please note that this total differs slightly from THOMAS, as we are not including in our count Representative John M. McHugh (R-NY), who resigned his seat last year to take a position with the Administration.
We currently have eight (8) cosponsors on S. 1611. Please note that this total differs slightly from THOMAS, as we are not including in our count Senators Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), who died last year, or Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL), who resigned his seat last year.
C. Support H.R. 1972, the "Law Enforcement Officer’s Procedural Bill of Rights Act"
We currently have three (3) cosponsors on H.R. 1972.
The Senate companion bill has not yet been introduced.
IV. UPDATE ON LEGISLATION AMENDING LEOSA
We currently have eight (8) cosponsors on H.R. 3752. 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. LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: Health Care Bill
After days of informal, non-public negotiations, Democratic leaders in Congress and the Administration reached a tentative deal on a proposed excise tax on high cost insurance plans. While the deal lacked specifics and even final language, we do know that it is an improvement on the bill which passed the Senate, H.R. 3590, the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” insofar as our members are concerned. However, after Democratic leadership discussed these changes with the rank-and-file members, including the 190 who signed a letter to Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the Speaker of the House, opposing the excise tax, it appears there may be no deal at all.
Under the tentative deal, the threshold for a tax will be raised to $24,000 for family plans and $8,900 for individuals. If health care costs grow faster than expected, the thresholds will be increased. The increased thresholds for employees engaged in high risk professions, including law enforcement, remain. States with high health costs will also have increased thresholds. Most importantly, the tax will not be implemented until 1 January 2018 for many workers governed by collective bargaining agreements or for State and local government workers, including law enforcement officers. Finally, dental and vision plans would be exempted from the tax beginning in 2015.
While many of our members may never be affected by this tax as written, the FOP continues to strongly oppose this and any direct or indirect tax on health plans. We oppose this because our members need high quality and therefore high cost plans due to the dangerous nature of our profession. Considering the unpredictably of the health care market, setting a high threshold is not a sufficient enough protection to shield our members from this tax.
However, the deal described above now also appears unlikely to be accepted by the rank-and-file Democrats, perhaps due to the victory of Republican Scott Brown in the Massachusetts special election. It also may be unlikely that any health care legislation resembling either bill the House or Senate passed will become law. The President and Democratic leadership have vowed to continue pushing for health care legislation, but it is uncertain if the votes exists to move such a radical overhaul as that which passed the House and Senate to date.
One possibility is for the process to start anew with a more modest approach, which would include insurance industry reforms such as prohibiting insures from not covering “preexisting conditions.”
With all of the question marks surrounding health care legislation, it is very possible that no major legislation will be passed and signed into law this Congress. The Legislative Office will continue to monitor the progress of such legislation throughout the remainder of the 111th Congress.
VI. FOP NEWS: Zylon Settlement Benefits Vest Program
Chuck Canterbury, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, welcomed the announcement by U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. that the U.S. Department of Justice will be setting aside $11 million of the settlement from those companies which manufactured soft body armor with Zylon for the Bulletproof Vest Partnership (BVP) program. This program, created by legislation authored by Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Representative Peter Visclosky (D-IN) has helped State and local law enforcement agencies purchase more than 800,000 bullet-resistant vests.
“I think this is an example of poetic justice,” Canterbury said. “The companies that profited from the manufacture and sale of body armor that was not able to adequately protect the officers who wore it will see those profits used to ensure these officers are safely equipped in the future.”
The lawsuit was filed in June 2007 by the the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and other Federal components after the FOP brought the issue to the attention of then-U.S. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and other high-level officials at the Department. In 2003, the FOP learned that a police officer in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania was seriously wounded because his body armor failed to protect him from a bullet that the vest was rated to stop. It was the first verifiable incident in which soft body armor failed to prevent penetration from a bullet it was designed to defeat. Since the suit was settled later that same year, the body armor industry has paid the United States more than $54 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly manufacturing and selling defective body armor made with Zylon bulletproof vests. Of this amount, $11 million will be returned to the BVP program.
“The BVP program has been enormously successful since the FOP pushed through the legislation creating it more than a decade ago,” Canterbury said. “The Justice Department estimates that the additional $11 million will enable State and local law enforcement agencies to purchase an additional 26,000 vests.”
For more information about the BVP program, visit website: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bvpbasi
VII. FOP NEWS: Death Penalty for Alabama Murderer Upheld
Chuck Canterbury, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, praised the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, upholding the death penalty for Holly Wood, convicted of murdering his girlfriend in 1993. The 7-2 decision was written by the Supreme Court’s newest Associate Justice, Sonia M. Sotomayor, whose nomination was supported by the FOP.
“It’s a very good, very thorough decision that the FOP certainly agrees with,” Canterbury said. “As I told the Senate Judiciary Committee during her confirmation hearings, Justice Sotomayor is a jurist in whom the rank-and-file officer can have confidence.”
The issue in the case of Wood v. Allen was the decision of a lower Federal court to throw out the sentence of death, which had been reinstated by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The killer, Holly Wood, murdered his girlfriend while she was sleeping, had exhausted all other appeals and then attempted to argue that he was mentally retarded and that he had ineffective counsel because his attorneys did not make his mental deficiencies known to the jury.
In the opinion, which was joined by six other members of the Supreme Court, Justice Sotomayor wrote that reasonable “strategic decisions” by defense attorneys–that is, not making their client’s mental deficiency an issue at trial in favor of a different defense–did not constitute “ineffective-assistance” by counsel.
“Justice Sotomayor has written a very solid opinion in this case,” said Canterbury. “She has proven to be a tough, no nonsense jurist who respects the decisions of juries, not in only this case, but also in supporting the Court’s recent order in the Mumia Abu-Jamal appeal.”
Sotomayor also supported a recent Court decision in Smith v. Spisak, which ruled that sentences could only be overturned if the trial judge's instructions to the jury were actually incorrect and that individuals convicted by a jury could not have their sentences overturned or revisited by arguing that their juries were “confused.”
“Taken together, these three cases demonstrate that the Supreme Court is not inclined to set aside death sentences based on spurious legal technicalities,” Canterbury said. “One-third of the sitting justices were endorsed by the National FOP, and all of them have made the right decisions on these key cases, so we can be proud of that.”
VIII. FOP NEWS: Mumia Abu-Jamal Loses at the Supreme Court... Again
Chuck Canterbury, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, applauded the Supreme Court of the United States for its decision in Beard v. Abu-Jamal, which reversed the ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia to grant Wesley Cook, better known by his alias Mumia Abu-Jamal, a new sentencing hearing for the murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.
“I am very pleased with the ruling and am hopeful that the Third Circuit will revise its decision in accordance with a more recent decision of the Supreme Court,” Canterbury said. “Justice for Brother Faulkner and his family has been delayed for almost 30 years, but his killer’s legal maneuverings are almost at an end.”
Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner was murdered on 9 December 1981 by a cab driver calling himself Mumia Abu-Jamal. In 1982, Abu-Jamal was convicted and sentenced to death, a verdict which has been upheld by numerous State and Federal Courts for the last three decades despite the killer’s specious legal challenges. However, in 2008, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals granted Abu-Jamal’s request for a new sentencing hearing by applying a strict interpretation of the Mills standard. This legal standard provides that jurors must unanimously agree on aggravating factors, but not mitigating factors. Abu-Jamal successfully argued that jurors were “confused” and may have believed that they must unanimously agree on mitigating evidence, which the killer argued may have spared him a death sentence.
The Supreme Court revisited the Mills standard in a unanimous decision released last week in the case of Smith v. Spisak. The Supreme Court ruled that sentences could only be overturned if the trial judge’s instructions to the jury were actually incorrect and that individuals convicted by a jury could not have their sentences overturned or revisited by arguing that their juries were “confused.” As a result of this ruling, the Third Circuit Court will have to revisit their decision in Beard v. Abu-Jamal, which overturned the death sentence pending a new sentencing hearing, with the new standard.
“I am hopeful that this decision will lead to Mumia’s ultimate date with justice,” Canterbury said. “It is long, long overdue.”
IX. Day on the Hill 2009: 8-10 February!!!
The FOP Day on the Hill 2010 begin on Monday, 8 February 2010. The National Legislative Office and the National Legislative Committee will host a short briefing that day at 4pm in the District of Columbia Lodge #1 at 711 4th Street, NW.
Our guest speaker will be R. Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and former police chief in the cities of Buffalo and Seattle.
Tuesday and Wednesday, 9-10 February, will be devoted to your meetings with Members from your home States and districts. These appointments should be made in advance!!! Event participants should make every effort to have their Representative or Senator attend the meeting along with the appropriate staff person.
Accommodations for “Day on the Hill” Participants
The Grand Lodge has arranged for accommodations at the The Fairfax at Embassy Row
( http://specialoffers.starwoodhotels.com/Fairfax/so.htm?IM=LC_HP_TL_English_SEG_245_Debuting ) at the rate of $159 per night plus tax.
The Fairfax at Embassy Row is located at 2100 Massachusetts Avenue NW in Washington, DC and is within walking distance of the Metro's Red Line.
Make your reservations now by calling 202-293-2100 and tell them you are with the Grand Lodge Fraternal Order of Police's "Day on the Hill" event to get this special rate.
This special rate is available only until 1 February--so make your reservations NOW!!!
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