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Floor Speech

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Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, this week is National Police Week. It is an opportunity to show our gratitude to the men and women in blue who risk their lives every day for our safety, as well as honor those who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

This Police Week I want to tell a story of a police chief in my home State of Nebraska.

Local broadcast outlet KETV recently interviewed the new police chief of Ashland, a city of about 3,000 on the eastern side of the State. According to KETV, Chief Ryan Brady worked 19 days in a row at one point last year. He logged over 170 hours in a 2-week period. Chief Brady clocked more than 800 overtime hours last year. But he is on salary. So he is not paid for any of it.

I am amazed at Chief Brady's dedication to the job. He works day shifts, night shifts, and picks up his partners' shifts when they get sick.

But why does he have to do all that work? Why does he have to do so much? Well, because his department has encountered a staffing crisis. Between retirements and trouble recruiting, the Ashland Police Department has dwindled down to only a handful of officers.

Chief Brady told KETV:

Somebody's got to work. So the buck stops here. So, you know, if no one else can work, I work.

I have spoken with police officers and sheriffs all over my State, and I can tell you this is not a problem that is unique to Ashland. No, it is not even a problem unique to Nebraska. Severe police staffing shortages are affecting departments all across our country.

The Police Executive Research Forum found that agencies are losing officers faster than they can hire new ones. There were 47 percent more resignations in 2022 than in 2019, in addition to 19 percent more retirements over the same time period. That means that large groups of officers are leaving the force while few are trickling in. Understaffed staffs are doing their best to keep up with these changes, but there are also roadblocks we can help them remove when it comes to hiring.

Over the past year, I have worked with police departments across Nebraska, as well as national law enforcement groups representing departments across this country. From these conversations, I introduced the Recruit and Retain Act, which would help police departments tackle these staffing roadblocks.

This bipartisan bill would boost officer recruitment opportunities through the Justice Department's Community Oriented Policing Services hiring grants. These grants can keep departments afloat. But recruitment expenses like background checks, psychological evaluations, and other tests are not currently included in the eligible expenses. So this bill would allow COPS grants to cover these specific costs and make it easier to onboard new officers. Reducing the cost of hiring would go a long way in helping law enforcement raise staffing levels.

My bill would also establish the Pipeline Partnership Program, a new initiative aimed at fostering youth interest in law enforcement careers. Departments and local schools would work together to launch mentorship opportunities, job fairs, and other activities that give young people better insight into law enforcement work. This program would bolster community relationships. It would help to open up stronger local hiring pipelines for police departments too.

Finally, the bill would direct the Government Accountability Office to study both the causes of this latest recruitment and retention challenge as well as the effects they have on public safety.

I would like to thank Senator Coons for working with me on this bill for many months, as well as Senators Cornyn and Klobuchar. It was great that we saw the Judiciary Committee pass this bill by voice vote today, and I look forward to its advancement.

I was also glad to join my colleague Senator Cornyn to help introduce two bills that further support law enforcement's tireless work. The Project Safe Neighborhoods Act of 2023 would reauthorize the Project Safe Neighborhoods program through fiscal year 2026. The PSN program is an effective bipartisan solution to violent crime that has been working since 2001.

In Nebraska, PSN coordinates enforcement and prosecution partnerships among Federal, State, and local law enforcement, in addition to involvement with Nebraska communities to bring violent offenders to justice.

The second bill, the Back the Blue Act, would protect police officers by creating new Federal criminal penalties for attacking law enforcement officers. Too often police officers are harmed rather than honored in our country, and it is time that we make a Federal statement that attackers will be punished.

Another vital area to continue addressing is the mental health of our police officers, who face daily strains from the intensity of their jobs. I am planning to reintroduce a bill that would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to create a publicly accessible online dashboard so that organizations, including law enforcement groups, can easily search for Federal funding opportunities that support mental health. Potential applicants would be able to search for the right mental health grants and track the status of those grants. This bill could truly be a lifeline to officers reeling from staffing issues or difficult cases.

In his interview, Ashland Police Chief Brady said:

I love this community. The hours that I'm putting in are because of my care for the people.

That dedication is what we honor during National Police Week, but let's not leave our appreciation for our selfless hard-working police officers behind on Saturday when Police Week ends. I urge my colleagues to continue backing the blue throughout the year and, especially, to pass these very critical bills.

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