II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1316
To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to
provide that COPS grant funds may be used for local law enforcement
recruits to attend schools or academies if the recruits agree to serve
in precincts of law enforcement agencies in their communities.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
APRIL7, 2025
Mr. P
ETERS(for himself, Mr. CORNYN, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. CRUZ, Mr.
C
OONS, Mr. TILLIS, Mr. PADILLA, Mrs. BLACKBURN, and Mr. WELCH)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets
Act of 1968 to provide that COPS grant funds may
be used for local law enforcement recruits to attend
schools or academies if the recruits agree to serve in
precincts of law enforcement agencies in their commu-
nities.
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 ‘‘Strong Communities 4
Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. STRONG COMMUNITIES PROGRAM. 1
Section 1701 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control 2
and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10381) is amend-3
ed by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(q) COPS S
TRONGCOMMUNITIESPROGRAM.— 5
‘‘(1) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 6
‘‘(A) E
LIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligi-7
ble entity’ means— 8
‘‘(i) an institution of higher education, 9
as defined in section 101 of the Higher 10
Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001), 11
that, in coordination or through an agree-12
ment with a local law enforcement agency, 13
offers a law enforcement training program; 14
or 15
‘‘(ii) a local law enforcement agency 16
that offers a law enforcement training pro-17
gram. 18
‘‘(B) L
OCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGEN -19
CY.—The term ‘local law enforcement agency’ 20
means an agency of a State, unit of local gov-21
ernment, or Indian Tribe that is authorized by 22
law or by a government agency to engage in or 23
supervise the prevention, detection, investiga-24
tion, or prosecution of any violation of criminal 25
law. 26
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‘‘(2) GRANTS.—The Attorney General may use 1
amounts otherwise appropriated to carry out this 2
section for a fiscal year (beginning with fiscal year 3
2025) to make competitive grants to local law en-4
forcement agencies to be used for officers and re-5
cruits to attend law enforcement training programs 6
at eligible entities if the officers and recruits agree 7
to serve in law enforcement agencies in their com-8
munities. 9
‘‘(3) E
LIGIBILITY.—To be eligible for a grant 10
through a local law enforcement agency under this 11
subsection, each officer or recruit described in para-12
graph (2) shall— 13
‘‘(A) serve as a full-time law enforcement 14
officer for a total of not fewer than 4 years dur-15
ing the 8-year period beginning on the date on 16
which the officer or recruit completes a law en-17
forcement training program for which the offi-18
cer or recruit receives benefits; 19
‘‘(B) complete the service described in sub-20
paragraph (A) in a local law enforcement agen-21
cy located within— 22
‘‘(i) 7 miles of the residence of the of-23
ficer or recruit where the officer or recruit 24
has resided for not fewer than 5 years; or 25
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‘‘(ii) if the officer or recruit resides in 1
a county with fewer than 150,000 resi-2
dents, within 20 miles of the residence of 3
the officer or recruit where the officer or 4
recruit has resided for not fewer than 5 5
years; and 6
‘‘(C) submit to the eligible entity providing 7
a law enforcement training program to the offi-8
cer or recruit evidence of employment of the of-9
ficer or recruit in the form of a certification by 10
the chief administrative officer of the local law 11
enforcement agency where the officer or recruit 12
is employed. 13
‘‘(4) R
EPAYMENT.— 14
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—If an officer or recruit 15
does not complete the service described in para-16
graph (3), the officer or recruit shall submit to 17
the local law enforcement agency an amount 18
equal to any benefits the officer or recruit re-19
ceived through the local law enforcement agency 20
under this subsection. 21
‘‘(B) R
EGULATIONS.—The Attorney Gen-22
eral shall promulgate regulations that establish 23
categories of extenuating circumstances under 24
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which an officer or recruit may be excused from 1
repayment under subparagraph (A).’’. 2
SEC. 3. TRANSPARENCY. 3
Not less frequently than annually, the Attorney Gen-4
eral shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of 5
the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the 6
House of Representatives a report that details, with re-7
spect to recipients of grants under section 1701(q) of title 8
I of the Omnibus and Crime Control and Safe Streets Act 9
of 1968, as added by section 2— 10
(1) during the 1-year period preceding the date 11
of the report— 12
(A) the number and location of those re-13
cipients; and 14
(B) the number of law enforcement officers 15
and recruits each recipient intends to send to 16
law enforcement training programs at eligible 17
entities (as defined in paragraph (1) of such 18
section 1701(q)) with amounts from the grant; 19
and 20
(2) during the period between the date of enact-21
ment of this Act and the date of the report— 22
(A) the number of law enforcement officers 23
or recruits who attended the training described 24
in paragraph (1)(B) with amounts from the 25
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grant and returned from the training as em-1
ployees of the recipient; and 2
(B) the number of law enforcement officers 3
or recruits described in subparagraph (A) who 4
remain an employee of the recipient. 5
Æ
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