Law enforcement officers are generally known for their selflessness. They won’t hesitate to insert themselves into a dangerous situation to prevent harm to a total stranger and expect little more than their paycheck for doing so. That doesn’t mean there is a complete absence of “What’s In It For Me?” especially in regard to long-term issues like pensions, mental and physical health.
That’s why a new presidential administration is always of special interest to police. Each President and Congress can make life a little easier or more difficult for cops, and sometimes it’s a guessing game as to which way the new guys will lean.
Let’s discuss five police-related measures presently working their way through Congress that might, just maybe, make it to the desk of Presidents Biden or Trump to be signed into law.
Social Security Fairness Act
House Resolution 82, otherwise known as the Social Security Fairness Act, represents the best news for police among the five, as it puts more money in police pockets and has the best chance of becoming law. It might be a done deal by the time you read this article.
Many law enforcement officers who have worked long enough to qualify for a police pension have also contributed to Social Security. Even if their police employer didn’t take Social Security deductions, other jobs they worked over their lifetime did amount to the 40 quarters (10 years) of contributions necessary to qualify for Social Security benefits on reaching retirement age.
When those officers with government pensions and sufficient Social Security contributions go to apply for Social Security, they find out about the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). The GPO is simplest: if you are a surviving spouse of a government employee and receive a government pension, Social Security will reduce your benefit by 2/3 of your government pension. Say that your survivor’s pension is $3,000 per month, and the Social Security benefits table says your Social Security check should be $2,000 per month. Instead, it’s going to be zero, as two-thirds of your police pension equals the amount of your Social Security benefit.
Calculation of the WEP is more complicated, but it also serves to reduce the retiree’s Social Security benefit if they’re getting a government pension. There is an explanatory document here and an online calculator here. Government employees generally, and cops in particular, have complained for many years that they are entitled to collect the same benefits they paid for through payroll deductions, the same as any other American.
The Social Security Fairness Act allows them to do exactly that. The WEP and GPO are eliminated, and Social Security benefits are calculated without regard for any government pensions. The bill passed the House of Representatives with a strong bipartisan vote on November 13, 2024, and now goes on to the Senate.
The corresponding bill in the Senate presently has 62 bipartisan co-sponsors, and it’s highly likely to pass if it is brought to a vote. However, you may have read about some recent and dramatic changes pending in federal government, and those are going to distract the Senate until its adjournment on January 3, 2025. If the bill isn’t approved in the Senate and forwarded to President Biden (who will be in office until the January 20 inauguration of Donald Trump) to sign into law before adjournment, it can die a quiet death.
Even if you aren’t anywhere close to retirement, this bill could eventually put an extra $2000-$3000 per month in your pocket for the rest of your life. If there has ever been a good reason to write a letter or call your senators (you know you have two, right?) to urge their support, this would be it. If you’re not sure who your senators are, there is a directory here, along with contact information.
The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act
This legislation was introduced in the House by six members of Congress in 2021. The Democratic-sponsored bill passed mostly on party lines and was sent to the Senate. The Republican-controlled Senate failed to get the bill to a floor vote, effectively killing the bill. In May 2024, Rep. Sheila Jackson, Democrat of Texas, re-introduced the bill, where it currently resides with the House Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce.
This is a long bill (over 22,000 words) that generally works to constrain police power and tactics and deny qualified immunity to law enforcement officers in jeopardy of criminal prosecution or civil action based on a use of force or alleged violation of civil rights. It requires training on racial bias and the duty to intervene in racially charged incidents, bans no-knock search warrants and strongly encourages banning of the so-called chokehold.
As of this writing, it appears the House will be Republican-dominated for the next two years, giving President-elect Trump a rare trifecta in law-making. The Republicans will also control the Senate for at least the next two years, and this Democratic bill will likely languish there. It might have to be re-introduced after the current Congress adjourns sine die (“without a day,” for the last time until the next Congress is seated), again face a Republican-controlled Senate, and if it survived all that, to the desk of a generally pro-police president who would likely veto it.
The Invest to Protect Act of 2023
This bill was originally introduced by Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto in March 2023. It would have provided training grants to agencies with 200 or fewer sworn officers, with special references to tribal police departments. The bill went to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where it was never heard from again. If this one is ever to see the light of day, it will be after a do-over in the 119th Congress.
End Racial and Religious Profiling Act
This bill, with the unwieldy abbreviation of ERRPA, has been introduced at least three times, in 2019, 2021 and 2023. The latest sponsor was Senator Benjamin Cardin, a Democrat from Maryland. In one efficient twelve-word sentence, it categorically forbids law enforcement agencies to engage in racial profiling. It then goes on to use 96 distantly related words to define racial profiling as addressed in the bill. I am thankful I don’t have to present training on understanding and/or using this definition, as after reading it I’m a little less sure than I was before as to what racial profiling is.
The widespread difficulty the criminal justice and sociology sector has with defining racial profiling may be part of the reason this bill has become a perennial orphan of Congress. The most recent version was referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary in March 2023 and was never heard from again. There is about zero chance this bill will get any further consideration before Congress adjourns in January, but there is an excellent chance it will be reintroduced in the next session. It has little chance of surviving a Republican Senate, and an even smaller chance of being signed into law by President Trump.
POLICE Act of 2023
This bill really should have had more legs than it did. It was simple, it addressed an act that most people would have little trouble with, and, most of all it had a nifty acronym: the Protect Our Law Enforcement with Immigration Control and Enforcement Act of 2023, or the POLICE Act of 2023. Not since the USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act has a law proposal had such an ambitious title.
Unlike the other bills discussed here, the POLICE Act had only one basic provision: making the assault of a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or other first responder an offense that permits deportation of any non-U.S. citizen as a penalty upon conviction. Given the stated intent of President-elect Trump to deport undocumented immigrants, I doubt he would have any hesitation about signing this bill into law. If he is going to do that, however, it will likely be a similar bill introduced in 2025 or thereafter. The POLICE Act of 2023 passed the House and was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary in May 2023, where it was ignored. Republican Andrew Gabarino, the original sponsor of this bill, continues to represent the 2nd District of New York in the House, and he can re-introduce the bill in 2025.
President Trump and what is yet to come
Immigration reform was a major campaign issue for Trump. He has promised to arrest and deport millions of undocumented immigrants, although the minutiae of how he would do that is yet unspecified. No matter what methods he tries, it is difficult to see how he could come anywhere close to pulling this off without the cooperation of state and local law enforcement.
While some cops would have no moral or ethical difficulty being deputized as federal immigration agents, others would, and several governors have vowed to oppose any effort to arrest and deport people without due process. Others are vowing to make their domains “sanctuary states,” where law enforcement would deliberately oppose any mass deportation effort.
Although I’m hoping this doesn’t happen, we could see a schism between local and federal law enforcement, with open hostilities when each faction is simply carrying out the orders they have been given. Even if violence can be avoided, where will the detention camps be set up, to be filled with immigrants waiting for a bus or airplane seat? How will the administration handle the “Not In My Back Yard” complaints and efforts from resistance factions to sabotage the camps and free detainees? That is a situation local cops could find themselves immersed in, no matter what their politics.
The intentions and actions of past presidential administrations have been easier to forecast. The Second Trump Administration is going to be anything but predictable.
