Weekly Update & AnalysisThe Brooks
Bawden Moore Weekly Update and Analysis highlights recent and planned congressional activities including hearings, floor action, and new bill introductions that relate to public safety, justice, and homeland security matters. Please let us know if you would like to know more about any of the items described in the update. Additionally, please feel free to distribute this product as you see fit.
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This week, the US Senate passed a $95 Billion foreign aid
package to support Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. The House passed the bill last weekend. President Biden signed the measure into law on Wednesday. Included in the package were a handful of measures of importance to the law enforcement and public safety community. They include emergency supplemental funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, The Protecting Americans’ Data Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024, and the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The FEND Off Fentanyl Act provides new authorities to the White House to crack down on fentanyl traffickers. You can read more about the legislation, which has now
become law here. The Protecting Americans’ Data Foreign
Adversaries Act of 2024 prohibits data brokers from selling or sharing information to countries or buisnesses controlled by North Korea, China, Russia, or Iran. The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, will ban TikTok from the
United States if its owners, ByteDance, do not sell the company. The House Appropriations Committee
Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) released guidance for Fiscal Year 2025 Community Project Funding (Earmark) requests and deadlines for all Fiscal Year 2025 Member requests. You can read more about this here. |
BBM posts timely and regularly on topics of
interest to the public safety community. Email a member of the BBM team today to get new content delivered directly to your inbox. Blog Posts of the Week |
Hearings This Week Hearings Next Week - Crime and Federal Government Surveillance Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee
- Department of Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee
- Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee
- Department of Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee
- Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control
- Privacy, Technology, and the Law Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee
- Department of Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee
- Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government
Senate - H.R. 815
- Bill Title and Description: Israel, Ukraine, Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2024, Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, Protecting Americans’ Data Foreign Adversaries Act of 2024, FEND off Fentanyl Act.
- Status: Passed Senate ( 79-18)
House - The House was out on recess.
New Bill Introductions- H.R. 8119
- Sponsor: Gonzales, Tony [Rep.-R-TX-23]
- Summary: This bill would establish in U.S. Customs and Border Protection a pilot program to adopt dogs from local animal shelters to be trained as therapy dogs.
- H.R.8116
- Sponsor: Dean, Madeleine [Rep.-D-PA-4]
- Summary: This bill would limit the use of Federal funds for live tissue training for Department of Justice
personnel.
- H.Res.1168
- Sponsor: Costa, Jim [Rep.-D-CA-21]
- Summary: This resolution is in support of the
designation of the week of April 21 through April 27, 2024, as "National Crime Victims Rights Week".
- H.R.8103
- Sponsor: Green, Al [Rep.-D-TX-9]
- Summary: This bill would make certain improvements in the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the Department of Homeland Security.
Community and Client News
Two Weeks Remaining to Submit
Your Nominations for the Seventh Annual Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Community Policing The Department is requesting nominations for the Seventh Annual Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Community Policing. This award recognizes individual state, local, territorial, or Tribal sworn, rank-and-file police officers, deputies, and troopers for exceptional efforts in innovations in community policing, criminal investigations, and field operations that have proven effective in enforcing our laws. The nomination period for this award will close on Monday, May 6, 2024, at 8 p.m. (ET). Detailed information regarding the nomination process is available at
www.justice.gov/ag/policing-award.
Closing Soon! BJA Funding
Opportunity Postconviction Testing of DNA Evidence The FY 2024 Postconviction Testing of DNA Evidence solicitation seeks to assist states and units of local government by awarding funding to help defray the costs associated with postconviction case review, evidence location, and DNA testing in violent felony cases (as defined by state law)
where the results of such testing might show actual innocence. The program ensures the availability
of fair and impartial administration of justice to individuals who may have been unjustly convicted. Eligibility - State governments
- City or township governments
- Public- and state-controlled institutions of higher education
- County governments
Transforming Correctional
Culture and Climate Prison environments in the U.S. are not always conducive to effective
rehabilitation. Some facilities have substandard and unsafe living conditions where threats of violence are commonplace. In the latest issue of Corrections Today, NIJ Director Nancy La Vigne weighs in on how we can address this problem by drawing on and adapting innovations from correctional practices in Western Europe and Scandinavia. These models include implementing more humane living conditions grounded in restorative justice practices to promote safety for both incarcerated individuals and staff working in correctional facilities.
New Funding Opportunities
Open Now! COPS Anti-Methamphetamine Program (CAMP) Anti-Heroin Task Force (AHTF)
Program COPS Anti-Methamphetamine Program
(CAMP) The 2024 COPS Anti-Methamphetamine Program is a competitive grant program that advances public safety by providing funds directly to state law enforcement agencies to investigate illicit activities related to the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine. Up to $16
million is available for this program. Applications are due by June 26, 2024 at 4:59 PM
ET. Please click here for more information on the 2024 COPS Anti-Methamphetamine
Program.
Anti-Heroin Task Force (AHTF) Program The 2024 Anti-Heroin Task Force program is a competitive grant program that assists state law enforcement agencies in states with high per capita levels of primary treatment admissions for both heroin and other opioids. AHTF funds must be used for investigative purposes to locate or investigate illicit activities related to the distribution of heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil, or other opioids, or the unlawful distribution of prescription opioids. Up to $35 million is
available for this program. Applications are due by June 26, 2024 at 4:59 PM ET.
Please click here for more information on the 2024 Anti-Heroin Task Force
program. |
Bloomberg Government Publishes Marijuana Rescheduling, Laws, and Reform Legislation PowerPoint With the Drug Enforcement Administration considering rescheduling marijuana to a less restrictive drug designation, and Congress considering several major
legislative packages, Bloomberg Government developed a PowerPoint presentation to summarize cannabis laws, rescheduling proposal, process and implications, details of the cannabis banking package, and legislative prospects and industry positions.
Over 20 Technology and
Critical Infrastructure Executives, Civil Rights Leaders, Academics, and Policymakers Join New DHS Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board to Advance AI’s Responsible Development and Deployment Today, the Department of Homeland Security announced the establishment of the Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board (the Board). The Board will advise the Secretary, the critical infrastructure community, other private sector stakeholders, and the broader public on the safe and secure development and deployment of AI technology in our nation’s critical
infrastructure. The Board will develop recommendations to help critical infrastructure stakeholders,
such as transportation service providers, pipeline and power grid operators, and internet service providers, more responsibly leverage AI technologies. It will also develop recommendations to prevent and prepare for AI-related disruptions to critical services that impact national or economic security, public health, or safety.
President Biden directed Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas to establish the Board, which includes 22 representatives from a range of sectors, including software and hardware companies, critical infrastructure operators, public officials, the civil rights community, and academia. The inaugural members of the Board are:
- Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI;
- Dario Amodei, CEO and Co-Founder, Anthropic;
- Ed Bastian, CEO, Delta Air
Lines;
- Rumman Chowdhury, Ph.D., CEO, Humane Intelligence;
- Alexandra Reeve Givens, President and CEO, Center for Democracy and Technology
- Bruce Harrell, Mayor of Seattle, Washington; Chair, Technology and Innovation Committee, United States Conference of Mayors;
- Damon Hewitt, President and Executive Director, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law;
- Vicki Hollub, President and CEO, Occidental Petroleum;
- Jensen Huang, President and CEO,
NVIDIA;
- Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO, IBM;
- Fei-Fei Li, Ph.D., Co-Director, Stanford Human-centered Artificial Intelligence Institute;
- Wes Moore, Governor of Maryland;
- Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft;
- Shantanu Narayen, Chair and CEO, Adobe;
- Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet;
- Arati Prabhakar, Ph.D., Assistant to the President for Science and Technology; Director, the White House Office of Science and Technology
Policy;
- Chuck Robbins, Chair and CEO, Cisco; Chair, Business Roundtable;
- Adam Selipsky, CEO, Amazon Web Services;
- Lisa Su, Chair and CEO, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD);
- Nicol Turner Lee, Ph.D., Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Technology Innovation, Brookings Institution;
- Kathy Warden, Chair, CEO and President, Northrop Grumman; and
- Maya Wiley, President and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human
Rights.
Secretary Mayorkas selected these experts to develop multifaceted, cross-sector approaches to pressing issues surrounding the benefits and risks of this emerging technology. It will convene for the first time in Early May with subsequent meetings planned quarterly. At the outset, the Board
will: 1) provide the Secretary and the critical infrastructure community with actionable recommendations to ensure the safe adoption of AI technology in the essential services Americans depend upon every day, and 2) create a forum for DHS, the critical infrastructure community, and AI leaders to share information on the security risks presented by AI.
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Supreme Court to decide if government can regulate ‘ghost guns’
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The Supreme Court will decide whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives can regulate so-called “ghost gun” kits that can be assembled into a working firearm. The Biden administration asked the justices to overturn a lower court decision
that tossed out a rule meant to curb the kits, which allow a buyer to complete a gun that does not have a serial number to track and without a background check. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit held that the 2022 rule went beyond the scope of the Gun Control Act of 1968, which allowed ATF to consider a finished “frame or receiver” to be a firearm.
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Report urges fixes to online child exploitation CyberTipline before AI makes it worse
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A tipline set up 26 years ago to combat online child exploitation has not lived up to its potential and needs technological and other improvements to help law enforcement go after abusers and rescue victims, a new report from the Stanford Internet
Observatory has found.
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A Simple Way to Make the Suicide Hotline More Effective
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Since its launch in 2022, almost 10 million Americans have made use of 988, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. These Americans generally call because they’re afraid they or a loved one may harm themselves. The service offers an alternative to calling
911, so people experiencing mental health distress are not interacting with law enforcement agencies that may not be equipped to help them.
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How a law meant to protect public workers may have created a lawsuit gold mine
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New Jersey lawmakers acted swiftly when a man with a grudge shot and killed a federal judge’s son in a targeted attack at home: They passed a set of protections shielding judges’ personal information from public disclosure, and the measure was immediately
hailed as a model for the nation. But state legislators in Trenton weren’t finished. In the months that followed, they amended what’s called Daniel’s Law, expanding the measure to cover thousands of other state and local workers in New Jersey. In doing so, the lawmakers created a new frontier in data privacy — and a potential cottage industry for a tech startup.
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Some campuses call in police to break up pro-Palestinian demonstrations, while others wait it out
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Some U.S. universities called in police to break up demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war, resulting in ugly scuffles and dozens of arrests, while others appeared content to wait out student protests Thursday, as the final days of the semester ticked
down and graduation ceremonies loomed.
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Decades of dallying led to current delay on menthol ban
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The Food and Drug Administration has contemplated banning menthol cigarettes since as early as 2013, but concerns around potential heavier policing on menthol smokers, particularly Black smokers, and the opportunity for a new illicit menthol market have so
far foiled the proposal.
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Phone calls with police officers can be recorded, court rules after Florida man's appeal
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A Florida appeals court ruling that phone calls with law enforcement officers can be recorded with or without an officer’s consent has the man at the center of the decision calling it a “huge win” for police accountability.
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Biden signs bill extending a key US surveillance program after divisions nearly forced it to lapse
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President Joe Biden on Saturday signed legislation reauthorizing a key U.S. surveillance law after divisions over whether the FBI should be restricted from using the program to search for Americans’ data nearly forced the statute to lapse.
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Powerful animal sedative making fentanyl crisis 'even more dangerous,' WH official says
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Xylazine, sometimes referred to as “tranq” or “tranq dope”, is a powerful animal sedative that is approved for veterinary use, but increasingly the substance has been added to illegal drugs like Fentanyl. It causes an intense, long-lasting high, which leaves
users sedated, lethargic and often motionless in a trance-like state.
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Opinion: St. Louis city and county are collaborating against crime
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Earlier this year, regional elected officials and law enforcement leaders set an ambitious goal: to decrease homicides and shooting incidents by 20 percent over the next three years. A key to achieving this goal is regional collaboration. We know well that crime does not respect jurisdictional boundaries and that a small number of individuals are responsible for driving violent crime throughout our region. This is precisely why our strong collaborations and intelligence-sharing mechanisms are so critical.
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National Police Week Washington, DC — May 11.- May. 16 ,2024 | | |
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National Association of Police
Organizations TOP COPS Award Dinner/Legislative Update Washington, DC — May 12.- May. 14 ,2024 | | |
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2024 IACP Technology Conference Charlotte, NC — May 21.- May 23 ,2024 | | |
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Major County Sheriffs of America Summer 2024 Conference Palm Beach, FL — June 10- June 13 ,2024 | | |
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National Sheriffs Association 2024 Annual Conference Oklahoma City, OK — June 24.- June 27 ,2024 | | |
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Small & Rural Law Enforcement Executives’ Association Annual Conference Petersburg, VA — July 29.- July 31 ,2024 | | |
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American Correctional Association's 154th Congress of Correction Nashville, TN — Aug 15.- Aug 18 ,2024 | | |
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2024 NAGIA World Gang Summit Lexington, KY— Sep 30.- Oct. 3 ,2024 | | |
Brooks Bawden Moore, LLC is a team of experienced professionals who serve as trusted
advisors to law enforcement, homeland security, and intelligence practitioners and solution providers. Our government relations practice helps
clients advance critical policy priorities with Congress, federal agencies, and state legislatures. Our business strategy consulting practice enables companies to connect innovative products and services with market needs.
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