On Sept. 12, one day after the 22nd anniversary of the Sept.11, 2001 terrorist attacks on our nation, NAPO, together with nine other national law enforcement organizations, sent a letter to the leadership of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees as well as Committee members expressing our strong support for Section 1087 (“9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act of 2023”) of the Senate-passed version of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2670). This provision, which was overwhelmingly approved by the Senate on July 27 in a 94 – 4 vote, ensures critical funding for the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) and fully authorizes coverage for Department of Defense military and civilians who responded to the attack on the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001; Join NAPO at our Legal Seminar, Defending the Protectors: Current Issues for Attorneys & Law Enforcement Leaders; The House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-MA) reintroduced his Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) reform legislation, the Public Servants Protection and Fairness Act of 2023 (H.R. 4260), which NAPO strongly supports. Though most law enforcement officers must retire after specific time served, usually in their early to mid-fifties. Yet, when they retire from a non-Social Security-paying job and move to one that does pay into Social Security, they are penalized by the WEP. Instead of receiving full support from their rightfully earned Social Security retirement benefit, their pension heavily offsets it, thus vastly reducing the amount they receive; The House and Senate were both in session this week for the first time since July with a lot of work on their plate, including funding the federal government to avoid a shutdown before it runs out of money on Oct. 1. The Senate took steps to move forward with debate on a three-bill package comprised of its versions of the fiscal year 2024 Agriculture, Military Construction, and Transportation HUD appropriations bills, the first major spending package to be considered in Congress. The House aimed to take up its version of the FY 24 Defense appropriations bill this week but had to pull it from consideration on the floor due to a lack of votes to move it forward. The bill, which the White House has threatened to veto, has no Democratic support, and does not have enough support from within the Republican Caucus as it currently stands to move it forward. Republican issues have little to do with the underlying Defense appropriations measure, but rather, House Freedom Caucus demands for further across the board cuts to all FY 24 non-defense appropriations. These hardline members are holding up all appropriations until they get their demanded spending cuts, which would ultimately be rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House; NAPO pledged its support for H.R. 2770, the Prevent Family Fire Act, which would create a new tax credit for retailers to incentivize the sale of safe storage devices for firearms. The tax credit would be equal to 10 percent of the sale price (no more than $400 per device); The Protecting America’s First Responders Act (PAFRA) established a two-year window from enactment (Nov. 18, 2021) specifically for 9/11 responders to file a disability claim under the Act for an injury sustained in the line of duty as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, assuming no claim had already been filed or the claim had been denied on the fact that the injury did meet the old disability requirements. It also allows families of 9/11 responders catastrophically injured because of the attacks, but who died of those injuries prior to being able to apply for benefits, to apply for death benefits within the two-year window. The two-year window is important because under PSOB statute, a claim has to be filed within 3 years of the injury or death and PSOB considers Sept. 11, 2001 the date of injury for 9/11 responders. The two-year window for 9/11 responders to submit a claim ends Nov. 17, 2023. To meet the deadline, an officer or their family only need to start a claim application on the PSOB website (PSOB.gov) - the application does not need to be completed by Nov. 17.