NAPO Washington Reports

NAPO Meetings on Capitol Hill – Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act

October 28, 2013

On October 25, 2013, NAPO met with staffers who work for the following members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee: Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD). The meetings focused on reintroducing the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act, which would extend collective bargaining rights to public safety officers. During each of the meetings, NAPO provided background on our organization and mission, and stressed that passing legislation to extend collective bargaining rights to public safety officers is one of our top legislative priorities. NAPO also provided an in-depth summary of the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act to each of the staffers, and emphasized the strong bipartisan support the bill received during the 111th Congress.

NAPO has spent the past several months discussing this important legislation with members of the Senate HELP Committee and the House Education and the Workforce Committee. NAPO plans to continue these efforts in the following weeks. NAPO is scheduled to discuss this issue with staffers for Senator Christopher Murphy (D-CT), Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) on October 31, 2013.

Law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every day to preserve the security and peace that our nation enjoys. However, these same officers are denied the basic American right to collective bargaining for wages, hours, and working conditions. NAPO will continue to work with fellow stakeholders to engage members of Congress to urge that this legislation be reintroduced during the 113th Congress. We will continue to provide regular updates to our members on this issue.

If you have any questions about the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act, please contact Melissa Nee at: mnee@napo.org.