I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 355
To protect law enforcement officers, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY13, 2023
Mr. B
ACON(for himself, Mr. LAMALFA, Mr. CARL, Mr. NEWHOUSE, Mr.
L
ATTA, Mr. BARR, Mr. AMODEI, Ms. STEFANIK, Mr. ALLEN, Mr. JOHN-
SONof Ohio, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Mr. RESCHENTHALER, and Mr. MEUSER)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary
A BILL
To protect law enforcement officers, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Back the Blue Act 4
of 2023’’. 5
SEC. 2. PROTECTION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS. 6
(a) K
ILLING OFLAWENFORCEMENTOFFICERS.— 7
(1) O
FFENSE.—Chapter 51 of title 18, United 8
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 9
following: 10
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‘‘§ 1123. Killing of law enforcement officers 1
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 2
‘‘(1) the terms ‘Federal law enforcement officer’ 3
and ‘United States judge’ have the meanings given 4
those terms in section 115; 5
‘‘(2) the term ‘federally funded public safety of-6
ficer’ means a public safety officer or judicial officer 7
for a public agency that— 8
‘‘(A) receives Federal financial assistance; 9
and 10
‘‘(B) is an agency of an entity that is a 11
State of the United States, the District of Co-12
lumbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the 13
Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the 14
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Is-15
lands, or any territory or possession of the 16
United States, an Indian tribe, or a unit of 17
local government of that entity; 18
‘‘(3) the term ‘firefighter’ includes an individual 19
serving as an official recognized or designated mem-20
ber of a legally organized volunteer fire department 21
and an officially recognized or designated public em-22
ployee member of a rescue squad or ambulance crew; 23
‘‘(4) the term ‘judicial officer’ means a judge or 24
other officer or employee of a court, including pros-25
ecutors, court security, pretrial services officers, 26
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court reporters, and corrections, probation, and pa-1
role officers; 2
‘‘(5) the term ‘law enforcement officer’ means 3
an individual, with statutory arrest powers, involved 4
in crime or juvenile delinquency control or reduction 5
or enforcement of the laws; 6
‘‘(6) the term ‘public agency’ includes a court 7
system, the National Guard of a State to the extent 8
the personnel of that National Guard are not in 9
Federal service, and the defense forces of a State 10
authorized by section 109 of title 32; and 11
‘‘(7) the term ‘public safety officer’ means an 12
individual serving a public agency in an official ca-13
pacity, as a law enforcement officer, as a firefighter, 14
as a chaplain, or as a member of a rescue squad or 15
ambulance crew. 16
‘‘(b) O
FFENSE.—It shall be unlawful for any person 17
to— 18
‘‘(1) kill, or attempt or conspire to kill— 19
‘‘(A) a United States judge; 20
‘‘(B) a Federal law enforcement officer; or 21
‘‘(C) a federally funded public safety offi-22
cer while that officer is engaged in official du-23
ties, or on account of the performance of offi-24
cial duties; or 25
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‘‘(2) kill a former United States judge, Federal 1
law enforcement officer, or federally funded public 2
safety officer on account of the past performance of 3
official duties. 4
‘‘(c) P
ENALTY.—Any person that violates subsection 5
(b) shall be fined under this title and imprisoned for not 6
less than 10 years or for life, or, if death results, shall 7
be sentenced to not less than 30 years and not more than 8
life, or may be punished by death.’’. 9
(2) T
ABLE OF SECTIONS.—The table of sections 10
for chapter 51 of title 18, United States Code, is 11
amended by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘1123. Killing of law enforcement officers.’’.
(b) ASSAULT OFLAWENFORCEMENT OFFICERS.— 13
(1) O
FFENSE.—Chapter 7 of title 18, United 14
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 15
following: 16
‘‘§ 120. Assaults of law enforcement officers 17
‘‘(a) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘feder-18
ally funded State or local law enforcement officer’ means 19
an individual involved in crime and juvenile delinquency 20
control or reduction, or enforcement of the laws (including 21
a police, corrections, probation, or parole officer) who 22
works for a public agency (that receives Federal financial 23
assistance) of a State of the United States or the District 24
of Columbia. 25
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‘‘(b) OFFENSE.—It shall be unlawful to assault a fed-1
erally funded State or local law enforcement officer while 2
engaged in or on account of the performance of official 3
duties, or assaults any person who formerly served as a 4
federally funded State or local law enforcement officer on 5
account of the performance of such person’s official duties 6
during such service, or because of the actual or perceived 7
status of the person as a federally funded State or local 8
law enforcement officer. 9
‘‘(c) P
ENALTY.—Any person that violates subsection 10
(b) shall be subject to a fine under this title and— 11
‘‘(1) if the assault resulted in bodily injury (as 12
defined in section 1365), shall be imprisoned not less 13
than 2 years and not more than 10 years; 14
‘‘(2) if the assault resulted in substantial bodily 15
injury (as defined in section 113), shall be impris-16
oned not less than 5 years and not more than 20 17
years; 18
‘‘(3) if the assault resulted in serious bodily in-19
jury (as defined in section 1365), shall be impris-20
oned for not less than 10 years; 21
‘‘(4) if a deadly or dangerous weapon was used 22
during and in relation to the assault, shall be im-23
prisoned for not less than 20 years; and 24
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‘‘(5) shall be imprisoned for not more than 1 1
year in any other case. 2
‘‘(d) C
ERTIFICATIONREQUIREMENT.— 3
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—No prosecution of any of-4
fense described in this section may be undertaken by 5
the United States, except under the certification in 6
writing of the Attorney General, or a designee, 7
that— 8
‘‘(A) the State does not have jurisdiction; 9
‘‘(B) the State has requested that the Fed-10
eral Government assume jurisdiction; 11
‘‘(C) the verdict or sentence obtained pur-12
suant to State charges left demonstratively 13
unvindicated the Federal interest in eradicating 14
bias-motivated violence; or 15
‘‘(D) a prosecution by the United States is 16
in the public interest and necessary to secure 17
substantial justice. 18
‘‘(2) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in 19
this subsection shall be construed to limit the au-20
thority of Federal officers, or a Federal grand jury, 21
to investigate possible violations of this section. 22
‘‘(e) S
TATUTE OFLIMITATIONS.— 23
‘‘(1) O
FFENSES NOT RESULTING IN DEATH .— 24
Except as provided in paragraph (2), no person shall 25
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be prosecuted, tried, or punished for any offense 1
under this section unless the indictment for such of-2
fense is found, or the information for such offense 3
is instituted, not later than 7 years after the date 4
on which the offense was committed. 5
‘‘(2) O
FFENSES RESULTING IN DEATH .—An in-6
dictment or information alleging that an offense 7
under this section resulted in death may be found or 8
instituted at any time without limitation.’’. 9
(2) T
ABLE OF SECTIONS.—The table of sections 10
for chapter 7 of title 18, United States Code, is 11
amended by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘120. Assualts of law enforcement officers.’’.
(c) FLIGHTTOAVOIDPROSECUTION FOR KILLING 13
L
AWENFORCEMENTOFFICIALS.— 14
(1) O
FFENSE.—Chapter 49 of title 18, United 15
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 16
following: 17
‘‘§ 1075. Flight to avoid prosecution for killing law 18
enforcement officials 19
‘‘(a) O
FFENSE.—It shall be unlawful for any person 20
to move or travel in interstate or foreign commerce with 21
intent to avoid prosecution, or custody or confinement 22
after conviction, under the laws of the place from which 23
the person flees or under section 1114 or 1123, for a crime 24
consisting of the killing, an attempted killing, or a con-25
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spiracy to kill a Federal judge or Federal law enforcement 1
officer (as those terms are defined in section 115), or a 2
federally funded public safety officer (as that term is de-3
fined in section 1123). 4
‘‘(b) P
ENALTY.—Any person that violates subsection 5
(a) shall be fined under this title and imprisoned for not 6
less than 10 years, in addition to any other term of impris-7
onment for any other offense relating to the conduct de-8
scribed in subsection (a).’’. 9
(2) T
ABLE OF SECTIONS.—The table of sections 10
for chapter 49 of title 18, United States Code, is 11
amended by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘1075. Flight to avoid prosecution for killing law enforcement officials.’’.
SEC. 3. SPECIFIC AGGRAVATING FACTOR FOR FEDERAL
13
DEATH PENALTY KILLING OF LAW ENFORCE-14
MENT OFFICER. 15
(a) A
GGRAVATINGFACTORS FORHOMICIDE.—Sec-16
tion 3592(c) of title 18, United States Code, is amended 17
by inserting after paragraph (16) the following: 18
‘‘(17) K
ILLING OF A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFI -19
CER, PROSECUTOR, JUDGE, OR FIRST RESPONDER.— 20
The defendant killed or attempted to kill a person 21
who is authorized by law— 22
‘‘(A) to engage in or supervise the preven-23
tion, detention, or investigation of any criminal 24
violation of law; 25
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‘‘(B) to arrest, prosecute, or adjudicate an 1
individual for any criminal violation of law; or 2
‘‘(C) to be a firefighter or other first re-3
sponder.’’. 4
SEC. 4. LIMITATION ON FEDERAL HABEAS RELIEF FOR 5
MURDERS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS. 6
(a) J
USTICE FORLAWENFORCEMENT OFFICERS 7
ANDTHEIRFAMILIES.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 2254 of title 28, 9
United States Code, is amended by adding at the 10
end the following: 11
‘‘(j)(1) For an application for a writ of habeas corpus 12
on behalf of a person in custody pursuant to the judgment 13
of a State court for a crime that involved the killing of 14
a public safety officer (as that term is defined in section 15
1204 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe 16
Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796b)) or judge, while 17
the public safety officer or judge was engaged in the per-18
formance of official duties, or on account of the perform-19
ance of official duties by or status as a public safety officer 20
or judge of the public safety officer or judge— 21
‘‘(A) the application shall be subject to the time 22
limitations and other requirements under sections 23
2263, 2264, and 2266; and 24
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‘‘(B) the court shall not consider claims relating 1
to sentencing that were adjudicated in a State court. 2
‘‘(2) Sections 2251, 2262, and 2101 are the exclusive 3
sources of authority for Federal courts to stay a sentence 4
of death entered by a State court in a case described in 5
paragraph (1).’’. 6
(2) R
ULES.—Rule 11 of the Rules Governing 7
Section 2254 Cases in the United States District 8
Courts is amended by adding at the end the fol-9
lowing: ‘‘Rule 60(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil 10
Procedure shall not apply to a proceeding under 11
these rules in a case that is described in section 12
2254(j) of title 28, United States Code.’’. 13
(3) F
INALITY OF DETERMINATION .—Section 14
2244(b)(3)(E) of title 28, United States Code, is 15
amended by striking ‘‘the subject of a petition’’ and 16
all that follows and inserting: ‘‘reheard in the court 17
of appeals or reviewed by writ of certiorari.’’. 18
(4) E
FFECTIVE DATE AND APPLICABILITY .— 19
(A) I
N GENERAL.—This paragraph and the 20
amendments made by this paragraph shall 21
apply to any case pending on or after the date 22
of enactment of this Act. 23
(B) T
IME LIMITS.—In a case pending on 24
the date of enactment of this Act, if the amend-25
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ments made by this paragraph impose a time 1
limit for taking certain action, the period of 2
which began before the date of enactment of 3
this Act, the period of such time limit shall 4
begin on the date of enactment of this Act. 5
(C) E
XCEPTION.—The amendments made 6
by this paragraph shall not bar consideration 7
under section 2266(b)(3)(B) of title 28, United 8
States Code, of an amendment to an application 9
for a writ of habeas corpus that is pending on 10
the date of enactment of this Act, if the amend-11
ment to the petition was adjudicated by the 12
court prior to the date of enactment of this Act. 13
SEC. 5. SELF-DEFENSE RIGHTS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT 14
OFFICERS. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 203 of title 18, United 16
States Code, is amended by inserting after section 3053 17
the following: 18
‘‘§ 3054. Authority of law enforcement officers to 19
carry firearms 20
‘‘Any sworn officer, agent, or employee of the United 21
States, a State, or a political subdivision thereof, who is 22
authorized by law to engage in or supervise the prevention, 23
detection, investigation, or prosecution of any violation of 24
law, or to supervise or secure the safety of incarcerated 25
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inmates, may carry firearms if authorized by law to do 1
so. Such authority to carry firearms, with respect to the 2
lawful performance of the official duties of a sworn officer, 3
agent, or employee of a State or a political subdivision 4
thereof, shall include possession incident to depositing a 5
firearm within a secure firearms storage area for use by 6
all persons who are authorized to carry a firearm within 7
any building or structure classified as a Federal facility 8
or Federal court facility, as those terms are defined under 9
section 930, and any grounds appurtenant to such a facil-10
ity.’’. 11
(b) C
ARRYING OFCONCEALEDFIREARMS BYQUALI-12
FIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS.—Section 13
926B(e)(2) of title 18, United States Code, is amended 14
by inserting ‘‘any magazine and’’ after ‘‘includes’’. 15
(c) C
ARRYING OFCONCEALEDFIREARMS BYQUALI-16
FIEDRETIREDLAWENFORCEMENT OFFICERS.—Section 17
926C(e)(1)(B) of title 18, United States Code, is amended 18
by inserting ‘‘any magazine and’’ after ‘‘includes’’. 19
(d) S
CHOOLZONES.—Section 922(q)(2)(B)(vi) of 20
title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting ‘‘or 21
a qualified law enforcement officer (as defined in section 22
926B(c))’’ before the semicolon. 23
(e) R
EGULATIONSREQUIRED.—Not later than 60 24
days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney 25
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General shall promulgate regulations allowing persons de-1
scribed in section 3054 of title 18, United States Code, 2
to possess firearms in a manner described by that section. 3
With respect to Federal justices, judges, bankruptcy 4
judges, and magistrate judges, such regulations shall be 5
prescribed after consultation with the Judicial Conference 6
of the United States. 7
(f) T
ABLE OFSECTIONS.—The table of sections for 8
chapter 203 of title 18, United States Code, is amended 9
by inserting after the item relating to section 3053 the 10
following: 11
‘‘3054. Authority of law enforcement officers to carry firearms.’’.
(g) FURTHERAMENDMENT.—Section 930 of title 18, 12
United States Code, is amended— 13
(1) in subsection (d)— 14
(A) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘or’’ at 15
the end; 16
(B) in paragraph (3), by striking the pe-17
riod at the end and inserting ‘‘or’’; and 18
(C) by adding at the end the following: 19
‘‘(4) the possession of a firearm or ammunition 20
in a Facility Security Level I or II civilian public ac-21
cess facility by a qualified law enforcement officer 22
(as defined in section 926B(c)) or a qualified retired 23
law enforcement officer (as defined in section 24
926C(c)).’’; and 25
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(2) in subsection (g), by adding at the end the 1
following: 2
‘‘(4) The term ‘Facility Security Level’ means 3
a security risk assessment level assigned to a Fed-4
eral facility by the security agency of the facility in 5
accordance with the biannually issued Interagency 6
Security Committee Standard. 7
‘‘(5) The term ‘civilian public access facility’ 8
means a facility open to the general public.’’. 9
SEC. 6. IMPROVING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LAW EN-10
FORCEMENT AGENCIES AND THE COMMU-11
NITIES THEY SERVE. 12
(a) I
NGENERAL.—For each of fiscal years 2024 13
through 2028, the Attorney General using covered 14
amounts shall, using such amounts as are necessary not 15
to exceed $20,000,000, award grants to State, local, or 16
tribal law enforcement agencies and appropriate non-17
governmental organizations to— 18
(1) promote trust and ensure legitimacy among 19
law enforcement agencies and the communities they 20
serve through procedural reforms, transparency, and 21
accountability; 22
(2) develop comprehensive and responsive poli-23
cies on key topics relevant to the relationship be-24
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tween law enforcement agencies and the commu-1
nities they serve; 2
(3) balance the embrace of technology and dig-3
ital communications with local needs, privacy, as-4
sessments, and monitoring; 5
(4) encourage the implementation of policies 6
that support community-based partnerships in the 7
reduction of crime; 8
(5) emphasize the importance of high quality 9
and effective training and education through part-10
nerships with local and national training facilities; 11
and 12
(6) endorse practices that support officer 13
wellness and safety through the re-evaluation of offi-14
cer shift hours, including data collection and anal-15
ysis. 16
(b) C
OVEREDAMOUNTSDEFINED.—In this section, 17
the term ‘‘covered amounts’’ means— 18
(1) any unobligated balances made available 19
under the heading ‘‘GENERAL ADMINISTRA-20
TION’’ under the heading ‘‘DEPARTMENT OF 21
JUSTICE’’ in an appropriations Act in a fiscal year; 22
(2) any amounts made available for an ‘‘Ed-23
ward Byrne Memorial criminal justice innovation 24
program’’ under the heading ‘‘
STATE AND LOCAL 25
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LAW ENFORCEMENT ASSISTANCE ’’ under the heading 1
‘‘OFFICE OF JUSTICE PROGRAMS’’ under the 2
heading ‘‘DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE’’ in an ap-3
propriations Act in a fiscal year; or 4
(3) any combination of amounts described in 5
paragraphs (1) and (2). 6
Æ
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