School Resource Officer Act of 2019

School Resource Officer Act of 2019

This bill reauthorizes through FY2023 the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program and modifies it:

• to restore authority to make COPS grants for hiring and rehiring additional career law enforcement officers, and
• to specify that at least 30% of the amount made available for such grants must be used for school resource officers.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 916 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 916

  To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to 
  require a certain percentage of COPS grant funds to be used for the 
   salaries and benefits of school resource officers, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 30, 2019

Mr. Mitchell (for himself, Mr. Bacon, Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Smucker, Mr. 
 Meadows, Mr. Dunn, Ms. Stefanik, Mr. Reed, Mr. Gonzalez of Texas, and 
   Mr. Collins of New York) introduced the following bill; which was 
  referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the 
   Committee on Education and Labor, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to 
  require a certain percentage of COPS grant funds to be used for the 
   salaries and benefits of school resource officers, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``School Resource Officer Act of 
2019''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) a school resource officer program provides a safe 
        learning environment in our Nation's schools, provides valuable 
        resources to school staff members, and fosters positive 
        relationships between youth and law enforcement;
            (2) school resource officers are educators, informal 
        counselors and mentors, and law enforcement officers;
            (3) local agencies need the resources and flexibility to 
        establish school resource officer programs that will encourage 
        partnerships between schools and local law enforcement agencies 
        to develop innovative ways to make schools safe; and
            (4) Federal grants for school resource officer salaries are 
        intended to be a starting point for continued local action and 
        should not divert current designated funding.

SEC. 3. FUNDING FOR COPS IN SCHOOLS.

    (a) Authorization of Appropriations.--Section 1001(a)(11)(A) of the 
Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 
10261(a)(11)(A)) is amended by inserting before the period at the end 
the following: ``, and $300,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2020 
through 2023''.
    (b) Repeal Termination of Grants for Hiring Officers.--
            (1) In general.--Section 1701(i) of the Omnibus Crime 
        Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10381(i)) is 
        repealed.
            (2) Conforming amendment.--Section 1701(j)(1) of the 
        Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 
        10381(j)(1)) is amended by striking ``subsection (i) and''.
    (c) School Resource Officer Funding.--Section 1704 of the Omnibus 
Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10384) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (c), by striking ``$75,000'' and 
        inserting ``$125,000''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(d) School Resource Officers Set Aside.--Not less than 30 percent 
of the amount made available for hiring and rehiring additional career 
law enforcement officers shall be made available for the salaries and 
benefits of the school resource officers hired pursuant to a 
partnership described in section 1701(b)(12).''.
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