It’s Not Too Late! Register Today for NAPO’s 37th Annual Pension & Benefits Seminar

Don’t miss out on the chance to 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 as well as address the growing use of AI, liability risks, and practical advice for fiduciaries. 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.

View the agenda here and REGISTER HERE today!

For information, contact NAPO’s Director of Events, Elizabeth Loranger, at 800-322-6276 or eloranger@napo.org.  

NAPO Priorities: 2025 Year in Review

While 2025 was a challenging year, NAPO was successful in moving several of our legislative and policy priorities forward, including the Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act and the HALT Fentanyl Act. These wins and others are highlighted below in our 2025 year in review.

NAPO Priority Legislation Signed into Law

The Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act recognizes exposure-related cancers as line of duty injuries and would cover them under the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) Program for death and disability benefits.

The Halt All Lethal Trafficking (HALT) Fentanyl Act makes permanent the current classwide scheduling of all fentanyl-related substances as Schedule 1 drugs under the Controlled Substances Act, giving law enforcement the tools and resources necessary to combat and deter fentanyl in our nation’s communities.

The Improving Police Critical Aid for Responding to Emergencies (CARE) Act establishes baseline standards for trauma kits purchased using grant funding under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) and requires the development of best practices for training law enforcement officers to use trauma kits, and for deployment and maintenance of the kits in vehicles and government facilities.

The PROTECT Our Children Reauthorization Act reauthorizes and improves the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program to combat child exploitation and abuse.

The Chief Herbert D. Proffitt Act covers retired law enforcement officers who are killed or permanently and catastrophically disabled due to their previous work in the line of duty under the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) Program.

The TAKE IT DOWN Act establishes federal liability for those who generate and distribute deepfake intimate and explicit images, giving law enforcement needed tools to bring justice to the victims of these crimes.

NAPO Priority Legislation Passed by the House

The Improving Law Enforcement Officer Safety and Wellness Through Data Act would build on existing reporting requirements and fill data gaps to increase our understanding of the circumstances precipitating and involving ambush-style attacks against law enforcement. It would also require a report on the stresses and mental health toll these assaults have on officers and the extent to which mental health and wellness programs provided are meeting the needs of officers.

The LEOSA Reform Act would expand the areas qualified current or retired officers are allowed to carry a firearm, including in a Gun Free School Zone; on state, local and private property otherwise open to the public; and in certain federal facilities. It would allow qualified officers and retired officers to carry an ammunition magazine of any capacity that is not prohibited by federal law. Importantly, it would reform qualifications standards to alleviate undue burdens for those carrying under LEOSA.

The Common-Sense Law Enforcement and Accountability Now in (CLEAN) DC Act would revoke the District of Columbia’s (D.C.) Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Act, which stripped the officers of the Metropolitan Police Department of their right to bargain over accountability or disciplinary issues, amongst many other concerning provisions.

The Protecting Our Nation’s Capital Emergency Act would restore the right to negotiate disciplinary matters to D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers through collective bargaining as well as restore the statute of limitations for bringing disciplinary cases against members or civilian employees of the MPD.

Additional NAPO Victories

NAPO secured language in the Fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) giving state and local law enforcement agencies comprehensive counter-UAS authority, allowing them to detect, track, identify, and mitigate drones that threaten public safety. Under the NDAA, agencies can detect and track a drone, identify who is operating it, and disrupt, or bring it down if it poses a credible threat. These authorities are allowed when drones threaten large public events or venues, critical infrastructure, public spaces, or prisons, jails, and detention centers. It also includes provisions to allow Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) and Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant funding to be used by state and local law enforcement agencies to purchase drones and authorized counter-UAS systems.

NAPO looks forward to building on these victories and continuing to press our legislative agenda in 2026.

NAPO’s Legislative Scorecard for the First Session of the 119th Congress

Find out how your representatives and senators voted on NAPO’s priority legislation by reviewing NAPO’s our website under Legislative Priorities & Positions. The results include all recorded votes that impacted NAPO’s members during 2025. The Legislative Scorecard includes a description of the votes analyzed and NAPO’s stance on each of the votes as well as spreadsheets detailing how Members of Congress voted on each of our priority bills.

In addition to the roll call votes, NAPO had several legislative victories that were passed by voice vote or by unanimous consent, which does not record how each individual senator voted for the legislation. The purpose of this document is to only track yea/nay votes in order that we can attribute support or opposition to senators on NAPO’s priority legislation and analyze their support for our positions in a meaningful way.

To get a fuller picture of individual representative's and senator's support for our issues, please see our Sponsor/Cosponsor map. This is a useful tool to check if your Members of Congress supported pieces of legislation that have been introduced that will impact our members.

NAPO Participates in FBI’s Inaugural Law Enforcement Partner Engagement Council Meeting

On January 13, NAPO Executive Director Bill Johnson participated in the inaugural Law Enforcement Partner Engagement Council (LEPEC) Meeting, convened by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). NAPO was one of only two rank-and-file organizations participating in the meeting, with the rest of the participants being chiefs, sheriffs, and administrators.

Much of this initial meeting focused on improving communications between the FBI and state and local law enforcement, particularly regarding the FBI sharing information with its state and local partners. FBI Director Kash Patel met with the Council and emphasized that his goal is for the FBI to be an aggressive and trustworthy crimefighting organization.  

Johnson spoke with the Director and thanked him for including rank-and-file representatives on the Council, and emphasized the need for aggressive prosecution, including the use of federal assets, of those who threaten or harm law enforcement officers and their families. He responded by saying he wants to know if state and/or local prosecutors are not going after those who threaten or harm officers. Johnson reiterated NAPO’s view that the Department of Justice must look for federal jurisdictional “hooks” to allow federal prosecution, including federally funded officers and agencies such as task force officers or agencies receiving federal funding, and officers attacked while protecting the civil rights of citizens.

NAPO looks forward to participating in the next meeting of the LEPEC meeting and continuing to strengthen state and local law enforcement’s relationship with the FBI.

NAPO Victory! Congress Moves to Protect COPS Office in FY 2026 Appropriations

NAPO led the charge with Congressional appropriators and staff throughout the Fiscal 2026 appropriations process to protect the independence of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) in the Department of Justice (DOJ). In a significant victory for state and local law enforcement, NAPO was able to secure language in the FY 2026 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) spending measure, which Congress passed this week, directing the DOJ to maintain the COPS Office as “a distinct organizational grantmaking entity within the Department”. We sent a letter to the leadership of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees thanking them for safeguarding and continuing an independent COPS Office within the Department and for their longstanding support for our nation’s law enforcement community.

The CJS spending measure appropriates funding for the remaining nine months of the fiscal year. It allocates $964 million for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) Program, including $12.5 million for the VALOR Program, $6 million for Law Enforcement De-Escalation Training, and $13 million for the Project Safe Neighborhoods Grant Program. It funds the Bulletproof Vest Partnership (BVP) Grant Program at $30 million, the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) at $35 million, $15 million for the BJA Body Worn Camera Grant Program, and provides $82 million for the STOP School Violence Grant program.

For the COPS Office, the CJS bill appropriates $800 million, of which $253.1 million is allocated for the COPS Hiring Program with a carve out of $10 million for the Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act (LEMHWA) and the Supporting and Treating Officers in Crisis (STOIC) Act programs. It also provides $11.5 million for the POLICE Act program for officer active-shooter training, and a total of $48 million for the COPS anti-meth and anti-heroin task force programs. The measure also provides $15 million for Law Enforcement De-Escalation Training and funds the COPS Collaborative Reform Initiative at $5.5 million.

These funding levels are relatively on par with how these programs have been funded over the past several fiscal years, with no significant cuts to NAPO’s priority grant programs.

The CJS appropriations measure is part of a three bill “minibus”. Congress has now passed six of the twelve appropriations bills prior to the January 30 deadline for the current continuing resolution funding the government.  

BJA Announces Officer Resilience Grant Solicitation

FY25 Preventing Violence Against Law Enforcement Officers and Ensuring Officer Resilience and Survivability (VALOR) Initiative

This funding opportunity supports the immediate and long-term safety, wellness, and resilience of our nation’s law enforcement by identifying and addressing officer safety and wellness needs and gaps. This includes delivering no-cost training and resources and providing customized assistance directly to law enforcement officers and their agencies.

Eligible Applicants: Government entities, educational organizations, nonprofit organizations, and public housing organizations.    

Application Deadlines: February 5, 11:59PM EST for submission to Grants.Gov and February 12, 8:59PM EST for submission to JustGrants.gov.

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