I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 309
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to provide funding for the National
Law Enforcement Museum, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY9, 2025
Mr. N
EHLS(for himself, Mr. PANETTA, Mr. STAUBER, Mr. COSTA, Ms.
B
ROWNLEY, Mr. LAMALFA, Mr. HIGGINSof Louisiana, Mr. THANEDAR,
Ms. M
ACE, Mr. VALADAO, Mr. BABIN, Mr. CISCOMANI, Mr. LAWLER, Mr.
A
MODEIof Nevada, Mr. PAPPAS, Mr. KELLYof Pennsylvania, Mr. RYAN,
Ms. C
RAIG, Mr. GARBARINO, Mr. WEBERof Texas, Mr. NEGUSE, Mr.
M
OOLENAAR, Mr. FITZPATRICK, Ms. TITUS, Mrs. HINSON, Mr. GRAVES,
Mr. H
UDSON, Mr. BACON, Mr. LALOTA, Mrs. FISCHBACH, and Mr.
G
OTTHEIMER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Natural Resources
A BILL
To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to provide funding
for the National Law Enforcement Museum, 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 ‘‘National Law Enforce-4
ment Officers Remembrance, Support and Community 5
Outreach Act.’’ 6
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1
The Congress finds the following: 2
(1) The National Law Enforcement Officers 3
Memorial and the National Law Enforcement Mu-4
seum in Washington, DC represent the only law en-5
forcement campus in the United States and serves 6
a critical national mission of honoring and remem-7
bering those law enforcement officers who have died 8
in the line of duty, educating the public about the 9
important role of law enforcement in a democratic 10
society and working to reduce the number of line of 11
duty deaths and injuries among law enforcement. 12
(2) It is in the national interest to ensure that 13
the unique education and outreach programs of the 14
National Law Enforcement Museum be maintained 15
and enhanced. 16
(3) In 1984, Congress passed and President 17
Ronald Reagan signed into law a joint resolution to 18
authorize the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial 19
Fund, Inc., to establish a National Law Enforce-20
ment Heroes Memorial (Public Law 98–534) in 21
Washington, DC. 22
(4) Dedicated on October 15, 1991, the Na-23
tional Law Enforcement Officers Memorial honors 24
Federal, tribal, State, and local law enforcement of-25
ficers who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the 26
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safety and protection of our Nation and its people. 1
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial is 2
centered in the 400 block of E Street, NW, Wash-3
ington, DC and is the nation’s monument to law en-4
forcement officers who have died in the line of duty. 5
The Memorial was built entirely with private funds. 6
(5) In 2000, Congress passed and President 7
William J. Clinton signed into law the National Law 8
Enforcement Museum Act (Public Law 106–492), 9
which authorized the National Law Enforcement Of-10
ficers Memorial Fund, Inc. to build and operate the 11
National Law Enforcement Museum on Federal land 12
in the District of Columbia to honor and commemo-13
rate the service and sacrifice of law enforcement offi-14
cers in the United States. 15
(6) In April 2016, construction began on the 16
National Law Enforcement Museum in the District 17
of Columbia across the street from the National Law 18
Enforcement Officers Memorial in Judiciary Square. 19
In October of 2018 the National Law Enforcement 20
Museum was completed and formally opened. No 21
Federal funds were used to build the Museum. 22
(7) The National Law Enforcement Museum’s 23
mission is— 24
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(A) to honor and commemorate the ex-1
traordinary service and sacrifice of America’s 2
law enforcement officers; 3
(B) to serve as an important bridge be-4
tween law enforcement’s past and present, be-5
tween the heroes of yesteryear and those who 6
have followed in their footsteps, and between 7
America’s peace officers and the public they 8
serve; and 9
(C) to increase public understanding and 10
support for law enforcement and to promote 11
law enforcement safety. 12
(8) The programs of the National Law Enforce-13
ment Museum play a critical role in educating the 14
public about the vital importance of law enforcement 15
in a democratic society, the critical role law enforce-16
ment plays in protecting and serving the public, and 17
the sacrifices law enforcement officers have made to 18
serve in this role. 19
(9) The community education and outreach pro-20
grams, activities, and special exhibits within the Na-21
tional Law Enforcement Museum help bring local 22
law enforcement agencies closer to the communities 23
they serve, and help to foster a better understanding 24
between law enforcement and communities. 25
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(10) The National Law Enforcement Museum’s 1
Officer Safety and Wellness education and outreach 2
programs and activities help provide local, State and 3
Federal law enforcement agencies with critical infor-4
mation on best practices to reduce the number of 5
line of duty deaths and injuries and provide commu-6
nities and the public with education concerning the 7
sacrifices made. These programs, activities, and spe-8
cial exhibits are vitally important at a time when an-9
nual line of duty deaths among law enforcement offi-10
cers remain at an historically high level. 11
(11) Since the establishment in 1991 of the Na-12
tional Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, and the 13
dedication of the National Law Enforcement Mu-14
seum in 2018, the National Law Enforcement Offi-15
cers Memorial Fund and the National Law Enforce-16
ment Museum have worked cooperatively with local, 17
State and Federal law enforcement agencies to prop-18
erly honor the sacrifices made by law enforcement, 19
and provide key programming to reduce the number 20
of law enforcement fatalities and injuries, and foster 21
better understanding between law enforcement and 22
the communities they serve. 23
(12) Law enforcement agencies around the 24
country are dedicated to continuous improvement 25
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and innovation in officer and community safety, and 1
to building trust through community-based engage-2
ment and interventions. 3
(13) Since 2020, there has been a significant 4
increase in the number of law enforcement officers 5
resigning or retiring. According to the Police Execu-6
tive Research Forum, over the past three years there 7
has been an almost 24-percent increase in the num-8
ber of law enforcement officers retiring, and more 9
than 47-percent increase in the number of law en-10
forcement officers resigning. 11
(14) A number of law enforcement agencies 12
across the country remain under-staffed, and many 13
law enforcement agencies have been forced to declare 14
personnel emergencies and require mandatory over-15
time. 16
(15) The resulting deficit in confidence and 17
support jeopardizes public safety. There is a critical 18
need to enhance public understanding and apprecia-19
tion of law enforcement, and to improve the safety 20
and wellness of officers who serve our communities. 21
Fostering a more informed and positive relationship 22
between law enforcement and the public is essential 23
for societal safety and cohesion. A sustained national 24
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effort to restore confidence and understanding in 1
law enforcement is urgently needed. 2
SEC. 3. SUPPORT FOR THE NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT 3
MUSEUM. 4
During the first seven fiscal years beginning after the 5
date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Interior 6
shall award a grant to the National Law Enforcement Of-7
ficers Memorial Fund for the expenses associated with op-8
erating and enhancing the community outreach, public 9
education, and officer safety and wellness programs of the 10
National Law Enforcement Museum, including programs 11
to: 12
(1) Memorialize law enforcement heroes who die 13
in the line of duty and compile statistics on law en-14
forcement fatalities and injuries. 15
(2) Honor and commemorate the extraordinary 16
service and sacrifice of America’s law enforcement 17
officers. 18
(3) Develop and make available accurate, rel-19
evant, and accessible resources to promote the un-20
derstanding of law enforcement history and officer 21
safety and wellness training, which include digital 22
resources and other types of resources, such as print 23
resources and traveling exhibitions. 24
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(4) Increase technical resources to better en-1
gage the public in person and via online platforms 2
to educate and inform the public about community 3
policing and officer safety and wellness. 4
(5) Create, expand and disseminate scholarly 5
work through research, curricula, in-house and trav-6
eling exhibitions, publications, and other outreach 7
initiatives. 8
(6) Expand the collection acquisition and collec-9
tion processes, including staffing, conservation, proc-10
essing, and digitization. 11
(7) Augment law enforcement history and offi-12
cer safety and wellness education activities, includ-13
ing the development, dissemination, and implementa-14
tion of principles of sound pedagogy for teaching 15
about law enforcement history and officer safety and 16
wellness. 17
(8) Promote professional development including 18
local, regional, and national workshops; teacher 19
trainings; and partnerships with appropriate entities 20
to better educate and inform the public about law 21
enforcement history and officer safety and wellness 22
education. 23
(9) Engage with local and independent edu-24
cational agencies and expand teacher engagement to 25
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cultivate and support the development of leaders in 1
the teaching of law enforcement history and officer 2
safety and wellness education. 3
(10) Engage with State and local education 4
leaders to encourage the adoption of resources sup-5
ported under this Act into curricula across diverse 6
disciplines. 7
(11) Create, develop, implement, replicate, or 8
take to scale entrepreneurial, evidence-based, field- 9
initiated innovations for museum and officer safety 10
and wellness improvement, and rigorously evaluate 11
such innovations. 12
(12) Provide for the free admission to National 13
Law Enforcement Museum for active and retired law 14
enforcement officers and family members of fallen 15
officers; and dedicated free admission hours for the 16
general public at least once a week. 17
(13) Develop online Law Enforcement History 18
and Officer Safety and Wellness Education Re-19
sources for the general public and scholarly research. 20
SEC. 4. PROGRESS REPORTS; CERTIFICATIONS. 21
(a) P
ROGRESSREPORT.—For each of the first seven 22
fiscal years the National Law Enforcement Officers Me-23
morial Fund shall submit a report to the Secretary of the 24
Interior that— 25
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(1) documents, consistent with the funding pro-1
vided from the Department, the progress in deliv-2
ering public education, community outreach and offi-3
cer safety and wellness programming; and 4
(2) provides a formal accounting of total 5
amounts of Federal funds expended during the fiscal 6
year. 7
(b) S
UBMISSION TOCONGRESS.—The Secretary of 8
the Interior shall share this report with Congress every 9
fiscal year and make the report available on the U.S. De-10
partment of Interior website. 11
SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 12
(1) I
N GENERAL.—There are authorized to be 13
appropriated to the Secretary of the Interior to 14
carry out this section $6,000,000 for each of the 15
first 7 fiscal years beginning after the date of the 16
enactment of this Act. 17
(2) E
XCEPTION.—If in any fiscal year the 18
amount appropriated pursuant to the authorization 19
under paragraph (1) is not the full amount provided 20
by such paragraph, the Secretary may transfer such 21
sums as may be necessary from the National Park 22
Service, up to the amount specified in paragraph 23
(1), to carry out this section. 24
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SEC. 6. CONTINUATION OF ACTIVITIES. 1
To the extent that the National Law Enforcement 2
Museum is engaged in an activity described on the date 3
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary may use the 4
funds appropriated under section 5 to continue that activ-5
ity. 6
Æ
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