After record-setting hours of debate and votes on amendments, the Senate passed the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) July 1 by a vote of 51-50, with Vice President Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. The amended bill was sent back to the House with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) saying he will bring the bill up for a vote as soon as July 2, with the goal of passing it without further amendment before the President’s imposed deadline of July 4. It is unclear, however, if the House has the votes to pass it with the Senate changes or if more amendments will be needed to approve the bill.
The Senate-passed OBBB would strengthen funding for state and local law enforcement to protect communities from cross-border crime and many tax provisions that would impact NAPO members, including no tax on overtime pay (with a cap), an increase in the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, and an end to de minimis treatment for all low-value commercial shipments. The legislation bolsters funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 287(g) agreements for state and local law enforcement participation in federal immigration efforts. It also includes $3.33 billion for Department of Justice immigration efforts, anti-drug task forces, and for the Bryne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) and Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) programs to help state and local agencies investigate and prosecute violent crime, support criminal enforcement initiatives, and assist in immigration enforcement.
The Senate-passed OBBB creates a State Border Security Reinforcement Fund within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for grants to state and local governments to assist in building a border wall or barrier, the detection and interdiction of illicit substances and illegal aliens who have committed crimes, and the transfer and referral of such aliens to DHS. The bill provides $10 billion through 2034 for this Fund. The Senate included an additional $500 million under the DHS State Homeland Security Grant Program to increase state and local capabilities to detect and track unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
On June 24, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and longtime champion of the Justice Department’s Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) Program, Charles Grassley (R-IA), sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi detailing how the program has failed the families of officers who have been killed in the line of duty and asking for information and accountability. The letter is in response to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) September 2024 Report to Congress, Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) Program: Transparency, Claims Assistance, and Program Management Improvements Needed, highlighting deficiencies in the PSOB Program and issuing five main recommendations for improvements. After the Report was released, NAPO met with Chairman Grassley’s staff to discuss how best to address these significant program issues. The Chairman’s letter to the Attorney General largely mirrors NAPO’s concerns.
NAPO pledged our support for the First Responder Emergency Assistance Act (S. 2200), introduced by Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), that would create a law enforcement grant program to respond to rapid increases in aliens who have recently entered the U.S. The grant program would be retroactive four years after the date of the enactment, to cover the border crisis that occurred during the Biden Administration.
NAPO worked with our member organization, the Postal Police Officers Association (PPOA), to ensure provisions being considered for inclusion in the OBBB did not negatively impact PPOA member’s retirement security or PPOA's ability to adequately represent its members. Facing a proposed significant increase in their mandatory retirement contribution, NAPO reached out to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs staff and other Republican Senate offices to request that Postal Police Officers be excluded from the enhanced pension contribution proposal like other federal law enforcement officers. Our efforts succeeded as this proposal was not included in the Senate-passed OBBB. NAPO fought an amendment to charge federal employee labor organizations for the use of federal resources. While the amendment exempted unions representing law enforcement officers subject to mandatory separation, it did not protect all federal law enforcement unions, including the PPOA.
NAPO met with staff of Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL), co-chair of the House Law Enforcement Caucus and a member of the House Appropriations Committee, to discuss our grant priorities for the FY 2026 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) Appropriations bill, which will be taken up the week of July 7. We also shared our concerns with the President’s proposal to merge the COPS Office into the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), along with the Office of Violence Against Women (OVW), and the Office of Tribal Justice (OTJ). NAPO also opposes moving the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Program from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to OJP, which would further dilute these vital grant programs.
For more details, please click here for the July 2, 2025 Washington Report.
