NAPO Invited to Participate in White House
Law Enforcement Roundtable
NAPO was invited to participate in a law enforcement roundtable discussion led by President Trump at the White House on October 23 on the work of the Administration’s Homeland Security Task Force and its efforts to combat cartels and international drug and human trafficking networks. The Task Force is meant to be a single source of information sharing between Federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement as well as international partners in our nation’s fight against transnational crime. White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, amongst other top Administration officials, also participated in the roundtable.
President Trump created the Homeland Security Task Force in one of his first Executive Orders, “Protecting the American People from Invasion.” It directed Attorney General Bondi and Secretary Noem to establish such task forces in all 50 states that will be comprised of federal, state, and local law enforcement with the purpose of combatting cross-border crime in our communities, including drug and gang crime as well as human trafficking and smuggling.
Federal Government Remains Under Partial Shutdown
Next week, the federal government will head into week five of a partial shutdown as Congress and the Administration continue to be at a stalemate on how to fund and reopen the federal government with no end in sight. The reasons for the shutdown remain the same: Democrats are refusing to vote for the continuing resolution unless the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premiums, which are set to expire at the end of the year, are extended as part of the funding bill, and Republicans are refusing to negotiate on the ACA premiums extension until the federal government has reopened.
Speaker Johnson adjourned the House and has promised to keep it out of session until the Senate passes a funding bill. The House has not been in session since September 19, halting all legislative work in that chamber. The Senate has voted unsuccessfully on the continuing resolution twelve times since the shutdown, and many Congressional staff have been furloughed, resulting in little meaningful work happening in Congress.
While the Senate did manage to pass the Fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorizations Act (NDAA), which included the NAPO-backed “Law Enforcement and Victims Support Package”, and approve several of President Trump’s nominees, much of the focus has been on the government shutdown. The shutdown has gone on so long that Republican leadership is considering the need to pass yet another continuing resolution to fund the government given that there is now not enough time to come to a bipartisan agreement on Fiscal 2026 appropriations by the November 21st deadline of the House-passed resolution.
NAPO continues to monitor this situation and its impact on state and local law enforcement.
NAPO on the Hill: NDAA; COPS Office Independence
National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
After the Senate voted on October 9 to include the NAPO-backed amendment sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Ranking Member Richard Durbin (D-IL) – the Law Enforcement and Crime Victims Support Package – in the Fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), NAPO did not lose any time in reaching out to the House to gain support for maintaining the provision in the final NDAA.
With informal conference negotiations already begun between the House and Senate to hammer out the differences between their two versions of the FY26 NDAA, NAPO met with House Judiciary Committee staff to lobby in favor of the amendment as Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) will have a large say in whether the package remains in the final bill. We highlighted the eight bipartisan, and NAPO priority bills, that are included as part of the amendment package: Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act, Improving Police Critical Aid for Responding to Emergencies (CARE) Act, Retired Law Enforcement Officers Continuing Service Act, the Strong Communities Act, the Protecting First Responders from Secondary Exposure Act, the Reauthorizing STOIC Act, the Chief Herbert D. Proffitt Act, and the PROTECT Our Children Reauthorization Act.
NAPO also joined with our national law enforcement partners in a letter to the leadership of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees urging them to maintain the Law Enforcement and Crime Victims Support Package in the final NDAA. We reached out to House and Senate leadership as well to advise them of our efforts and ask for their support. Federal, state, and local law enforcement play a significant role in our nation’s security, and this package gives them the tools to effectively protect our communities, which makes this amendment appropriate for inclusion in the NDAA.
With the current uncertainty regarding how the federal government will eventually be funded for Fiscal 2026, the NDAA may be our only chance to get this package of bills across the finish line and passed into law this year. The goal of leadership has been to get the NDAA across the finish line around Thanksgiving, but the government shutdown may affect that timeline.
COPS Office Independence
NAPO continues to reach out to and meet with members of the House Appropriations Committee in an effort to stop the Department of Justice (DOJ) from merging of the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office into the Office of Justice Programs (OJP). While we understand and support the DOJ’s desire to make its many grantmaking authorities more streamlined and efficient, we fear that if the COPS Office is consolidated with the other grantmaking entities within the DOJ, we will lose a significant resource dedicated to state and local law enforcement.
Maintaining an independent COPS Office is a top priority for NAPO and we are urging Congressional appropriators to include language into the final CJS appropriations bill prohibiting the integration of the COPS Office into OJP. We will continue to work with Congressional appropriators to protect the independence of the COPS Office and ensure our priority grant programs are sufficiently funded in FY 2026.
NAPO Backs Bill to Ensure All Public Safety
Officers Benefit from Tax-Free Overtime
NAPO pledged our support for H.R. 5475, the No Tax on Overtime for All Workers Act, sponsored by Representatives Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Emilia Sykes (D-OH), Steven Horsford (D-NV), Nick LaLota (R-NY), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), which will help make certain that all hours worked over 40 hours per week by public safety officers are counted as overtime.
NAPO supported the provision in H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, that makes up to $12,500 in overtime pay tax-free. Our nation’s law enforcement agencies are understaffed, and officers are being forced to work overtime to ensure our communities are being served. Excluding $12,500 in overtime pay from their taxable income will significantly help with the retention crisis facing the profession and provide financial relief to officers and their families.
Unfortunately, Section 7(k) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) includes a partial overtime exemption for public safety employees. This exemption means these officers must work longer hours to be eligible for overtime under the FLSA than virtually all other overtime-eligible employees and do not begin to receive overtime under the FLSA until they work the equivalent of at least a 43-hour week. The No Tax on Overtime for All Workers Act seeks to fix this inequality and is a critical first step to ensuring that public safety officers who work over 40 hours per week can fully benefit from this tax protection.
NAPO thanks Representatives Malliotakis, Sykes, Horsford, LaLota, Suozzi, and Fitzpatrick for their leadership on this important issue and look forward to working with them to see H.R. 5475 passed into law.
Read NAPO’s letter of support here.
NAPO Thanks Attorney General Bondi
for Anti-Illicit Vape Efforts
NAPO sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi thanking her for her leadership and continued efforts to combat the illicit vapor products that are threatening our communities. The coordinated enforcement operations, led by the Department of Justice, together with the Food and Drug Administration and other federal law enforcement partners, are crucial to protecting our communities from unregulated and dangerous vapor products that pose serious health and safety risks.
These illegal vaping products, which are flooding the domestic marketplace at alarming rates, are largely manufactured in China and are unregulated. As Attorney General Bondi stated in her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 7, illicit vape manufacturers are targeting children with various flavoring and even disguising their products as toys. They are lacing their products with THC and what they are laced with next may be deadly, making it vital that we get ahead of this very serious issue now.
As demonstrated by the various federal law enforcement actions in September, this fight is about much more than illegal vaping substances. It is also about transnational criminal organizations tied to these products and the gun and drug crimes associated with them. Sustained aggressive enforcement against illegal vape shops and products is vital to protecting our communities from crime and safeguarding the health and safety of our children.
NAPO commends the Department of Justice for its focus on combatting illicit vapor products and other illicit drugs that are harming our communities and stand with our federal partners in support of continued enforcement efforts.
NAPO’s 37th Annual Police, Fire, EMS, & Municipal
Employees Pension & Benefits Seminar
Take an active role in safeguarding the future of your plan and retirement by registering for NAPO’s Annual Pension & Benefits Seminar at Ceasar’s Place in Las Vegas, Nevada January 25 – 27.
The purpose of this Seminar is to educate pension system and employee representatives along with their providers and vendors on the latest issues surrounding the pension and benefits industry. It will focus on the policies of the second Trump Administration, Executive Orders, lawsuits, and the new Congress. Slow but steady progress appears to be being made regarding inflation and the cost of living. Growing concern about our National Debt and the logjam in Congress, though, have threatened the U.S. credit rating and public confidence as a whole. The desire for stability and some sort of predictability remain vital in equity markets, and the battle over foreign policy and trade and tariffs continues.
We will continue to address the growing use of AI as well as liability risks & practical advice for fiduciaries. Benefits themselves continue to be viewed as a key component of recruitment and retention. We will examine these areas and more as we evaluate the effect of these trends on public employment benefits and security, and the near- and mid-term future for U.S. and world economic conditions.
For information contact NAPO’s Director of Events, Elizabeth Loranger, at 800-322-6276 or eloranger@napo.org.
Submit Your TOP COP Nominations Today!
Please take the time to nominate examples of outstanding police work for this prestigious award. We count on you, our members, to help us get the word about TOP COPS out and obtain nominations for officers nationwide. Join us in honoring America’s Finest by nominating a case today. The nomination form is attached and can be found on our website, and it must be postmarked or faxed to (703) 684-0515 by January 9, 2026. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact NAPO’s Director of Events, Elizabeth Loranger, at eloranger@napo.org or (703) 549–0775.
2026 will mark the 33rd year that NAPO has hosted the TOP COPS Awards®. The TOP COP Awards® Dinner will take place May 12, 2026, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, again coinciding with National Police Week. With your help and partnership, the TOP COPS Awards® will continue to be a tremendous success!