Reps. Cindy Axne (IA-03) and Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05) led a letter to House Leadership urging them to bring bipartisan, bicameral legislation — H.R. 6448, the Invest to Protect Act — to the House floor to better support rural and small police departments.
The bipartisan Invest to Protect Act would create a new grant program to invest in local police departments that have fewer than 200 officers. Grants would be available for officer training, recruitment, and other personnel costs, as well as body cameras and other equipment. The legislation will also reduce excessive reporting requirements of metrics that often do not apply to small areas.
“The only way to make a department better is to invest wisely in de-escalation and domestic violence training and essential tools, in recruiting and retaining the best talent, and to ensure they can be involved in their community,” the Members of Congress wrote in a letter to House leadership this week. “We need to ensure our officers and police departments have all the tools they need to fight crime and protect themselves and our families…For these reasons, we urge you to bring this key bipartisan, bicameral, legislation to the floor.”
The Invest to Protect Act was introduced in the House of Representatives in January by Reps. Gottheimer, John Rutherford (FL-04), and a group of other bipartisan cosponsors. The House bill now has 56 total cosponsors. The Senate companion was introduced in March and led by Senators Cortez-Masto (D-NV), Grassley (R-IA), Warnock (D-GA), and Cassidy (R-NJ).
The letter was signed by Reps. Sanford Bishop (GA-02), Antonio Delgado (NY-19), Ed Case (HI-01), Chrissy Houlahan (PA-06), Salud Carbajal (CA-24), Andy Kim (NJ-03), Jim Costa (CA-16), Susie Lee (NV-03), Lou Correa (CA-46), Mike Levin (CA-49), Chris Pappas (NH-01), Kim Schrier (WA-08), Jimmy Panetta (CA-20), Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11), Dean Phillips (MN-03), Elissa Slotkin (MI-08), and Darren Soto (FL-09).
