II 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 546 

To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to 

authorize law enforcement agencies to use COPS grants for recruitment 

activities, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 28, 2023 

Mrs. FISCHER (for herself, Mr. COONS, Mr. CORNYN, and Ms. KLOBUCHAR) 

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 authorize law enforcement agencies to 

use COPS grants for recruitment activities, and for other 

purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Recruit and Retain 

5 Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. IMPROVING COPS GRANTS FOR POLICE HIRING 

2 PURPOSES. 

3 (a) GRANT USE EXPANSION.—Section 1701(b) of 

4 title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act 

5 of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10381(b)) is amended— 

6 (1) by redesignating paragraphs (5) through 

7 (23) as paragraphs (6) through (24), respectively; 

8 and 

9 (2) by inserting after paragraph (4) the fol10 lowing: 

11 ‘‘(5) to support hiring activities by law enforce12 ment agencies experiencing declines in officer re13 cruitment applications by reducing application-re14 lated fees, such as fees for background checks, psy15 chological evaluations, and testing.’’. 

16 (b) TECHNICAL AMENDMENT.—Section 1701(b)(23) 

17 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 

18 Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10381(b)(23)) is amended by 

19 striking ‘‘(21)’’ and inserting ‘‘(22)’’. 

20 SEC. 3. ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS. 

21 Section 1701 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control 

22 and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10381) is amend23 ed— 

24 (1) by redesignating subsections (i) through (n) 

25 as subsections (j) through (o), respectively; and 


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1 (2) by inserting after subsection (h) the fol2 lowing: 

3 ‘‘(i) ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—Not more than 2 per4 cent of a grant made for the hiring or rehiring of addi5 tional career law enforcement officers may be used for 

6 costs incurred to administer such grant.’’. 

7 SEC. 4. PIPELINE PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM. 

8 Section 1701 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control 

9 and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10381) is amend10 ed by inserting after subsection (o) the following: 

11 ‘‘(p) COPS PIPELINE PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM.— 

12 ‘‘(1) ELIGIBLE ENTITY DEFINED.—In this sub13 section, the term ‘eligible entity’ means a law en14 forcement agency in partnership with not less than 

15 1 educational institution, which may include 1 or 

16 any combination of the following: 

17 ‘‘(A) An elementary school. 

18 ‘‘(B) A secondary school. 

19 ‘‘(C) An institution of higher education. 

20 ‘‘(D) A Hispanic-serving institution. 

21 ‘‘(E) A historically Black college or univer22 sity. 

23 ‘‘(F) A Tribal college. 


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1 ‘‘(2) GRANTS.—The Attorney General shall 

2 award competitive grants to eligible entities for re3 cruiting activities that— 

4 ‘‘(A) support substantial student engage5 ment for the exploration of potential future ca6 reer opportunities in law enforcement; 

7 ‘‘(B) strengthen recruitment by law en8 forcement agencies experiencing a decline in re9 cruits, or high rates of resignations or retire10 ments; 

11 ‘‘(C) enhance community interactions be12 tween local youth and law enforcement agencies 

13 that are designed to increase recruiting; and 

14 ‘‘(D) otherwise improve the outcomes of 

15 local law enforcement recruitment through ac16 tivities such as dedicated programming for stu17 dents, work-based learning opportunities, 

18 project-based learning, mentoring, community 

19 liaisons, career or job fairs, work site visits, job 

20 shadowing, apprenticeships, or skills-based in21 ternships. 

22 ‘‘(3) FUNDING.—Of the amounts made avail23 able to carry out this part for a fiscal year, the At24 torney General may use not more than $3,000,000 

25 to carry out this subsection.’’. 


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1 SEC. 5. COPS GRANT GUIDANCE FOR AGENCIES OPER2 ATING BELOW BUDGETED STRENGTH. 

3 Section 1704 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control 

4 and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10384) is amend5 ed by adding at the end the following: 

6 ‘‘(d) GUIDANCE FOR UNDERSTAFFED LAW EN7 FORCEMENT AGENCIES.— 

8 ‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 

9 ‘‘(A) COVERED APPLICANT.—The term 

10 ‘covered applicant’ means an applicant for a 

11 hiring grant under this part seeking funding for 

12 a law enforcement agency operating below the 

13 budgeted strength of the law enforcement agen14 cy. 

15 ‘‘(B) BUDGETED STRENGTH.—The term 

16 ‘budgeted strength’ means the employment of 

17 the maximum number of sworn law enforcement 

18 officers the budget of a law enforcement agency 

19 allows the agency to employ. 

20 ‘‘(2) PROCEDURES.—Not later than 180 days 

21 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney 

22 General shall establish consistent procedures for cov23 ered applicants, including guidance that— 

24 ‘‘(A) clarifies that covered applicants re25 main eligible for funding under this part; and 


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1 ‘‘(B) enables covered applicants to attest 

2 that the funding from a grant awarded under 

3 this part is not being used by the law enforce4 ment agency to supplant State or local funds, 

5 as described in subsection (a). 

6 ‘‘(3) PAPERWORK REDUCTION.—In developing 

7 the procedures and guidance under paragraph (2), 

8 the Attorney General shall take measures to reduce 

9 paperwork requirements for grants to covered appli10 cants.’’. 

11 SEC. 6. STUDY ON POLICE RECRUITMENT. 

12 (a) STUDY.— 

13 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Comptroller General of 

14 the United States shall conduct a study to consider 

15 the comprehensive effects of recruitment and attri16 tion rates on Federal, State, Tribal, and local law 

17 enforcement agencies in the United States, to iden18 tify— 

19 (A) the primary reasons that law enforce20 ment officers— 

21 (i) join law enforcement agencies; and 

22 (ii) resign or retire from law enforce23 ment agencies; 

24 (B) how the reasons described in subpara25 graph (A) may have changed over time; 


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1 (C) the effects of recruitment and attrition 

2 on public safety; 

3 (D) the effects of electronic media on re4 cruitment efforts; 

5 (E) barriers to the recruitment and reten6 tion of Federal, State, and local law enforce7 ment officers; and 

8 (F) recommendations for potential ways to 

9 address barriers to the recruitment and reten10 tion of law enforcement officers, including the 

11 barriers identified in subparagraph (E). 

12 (2) REPRESENTATIVE CROSS-SECTION.— 

13 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Comptroller Gen14 eral of the United States shall endeavor to en15 sure accurate representation of law enforcement 

16 agencies in the study conducted pursuant to 

17 paragraph (1) by surveying a broad cross-sec18 tion of law enforcement agencies— 

19 (i) from various regions of the United 

20 States; 

21 (ii) of different sizes; and 

22 (iii) from rural, suburban, and urban 

23 jurisdictions. 

24 (B) METHODS DESCRIPTION.—The study 

25 conducted pursuant to paragraph (1) shall inVerDate Sep 11 2014 06:25 Mar 07, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S546.IS S546

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1 clude in the report under subsection (b) a de2 scription of the methods used to identify a rep3 resentative sample of law enforcement agencies. 

4 (b) REPORT.—Not later than 540 days after the date 

5 of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the 

6 United States shall— 

7 (1) submit to the Committee on the Judiciary 

8 of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary 

9 of the House of Representatives a report containing 

10 the study conducted under subsection (a); and 

11 (2) make the report submitted under paragraph 

12 (1) publicly available online. 

13 (c) CONFIDENTIALITY.—The Comptroller General of 

14 the United States shall ensure that the study conducted 

15 under subsection (a) protects the privacy of participating 

16 law enforcement agencies. 

Æ 


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