I

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2101

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SEPTEMBER 24, 1996

Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

AN ACT

To provide educational assistance to the dependents of Federal law enforcement officials who are killed or disabled

in the performance of their duties.

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 ‘‘Federal Law Enforce5 ment Dependents Assistance Act of 1996’’.
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1 SEC. 2. EDUCATIONAL ASSISTANCE TO DEPENDENTS OF

2 SLAIN FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFI3 CERS.

4 Part L of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and

5 Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796 et seq.) is

6 amended by—

7 (1) inserting after the heading the following:

8 ‘‘Subpart 1—Death Benefits’’;

9 and

10 (2) adding at the end the following:

11 ‘‘Subpart 2—Educational Assistance to Dependents of

12 Civilian Federal Law Enforcement Officers

13 Killed or Disabled in the Line of Duty

14 ‘‘SEC. 1211. PURPOSES.

15 ‘‘The purposes of this subpart are—

16 ‘‘(1) to enhance the appeal of service in civilian

17 Federal law enforcement agencies;

18 ‘‘(2) to extend the benefits of higher education

19 to qualified and deserving persons who, by virtue of

20 the death of or total disability of an eligible officer,

21 may not be able to afford it otherwise; and

22 ‘‘(3) to allow the family members of eligible of23 ficers to attain the vocational and educational status

24 which they would have attained had a parent or

25 spouse not been killed or disabled in the line of duty.
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1 ‘‘SEC. 1212. BASIC ELIGIBILITY.

2 ‘‘(a) BENEFITS.—(1) Subject to the availability of

3 appropriations, the Attorney General shall provide finan4 cial assistance to a dependent who attends a program of

5 education and is—

6 ‘‘(A) the child of any eligible Federal law en7 forcement officer under subpart 1; or

8 ‘‘(B) the spouse of an officer described in sub9 paragraph (A) at the time of the officer’s death or

10 on the date of a totally and permanently disabling

11 injury.

12 ‘‘(2) Financial assistance under this subpart shall

13 consist of direct payments to an eligible dependent and

14 shall be computed on the basis set forth in section 3532

15 of title 38, United States Code.

16 ‘‘(b) DURATION OF BENEFITS.—No dependent shall

17 receive assistance under this subpart for a period in excess

18 of forty-five months of full-time education or training or

19 a proportional period of time for a part-time program.

20 ‘‘(c) AGE LIMITATION FOR DEPENDENT CHIL21 DREN.—No dependent child shall be eligible for assistance

22 under this subpart after the child’s 27th birthday absent

23 a finding by the Attorney General of extraordinary cir24 cumstances precluding the child from pursuing a program

25 of education.
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1 ‘‘SEC. 1213. APPLICATIONS; APPROVAL.

2 ‘‘(a) APPLICATION.—A person seeking assistance

3 under this subpart shall submit an application to the At4 torney General in such form and containing such informa5 tion as the Attorney General reasonably may require.

6 ‘‘(b) APPROVAL.—The Attorney General shall ap7 prove an application for assistance under this subpart un8 less the Attorney General finds that—

9 ‘‘(1) the dependent is not eligible for, is no

10 longer eligible for, or is not entitled to the assistance

11 for which application is made;

12 ‘‘(2) the dependent’s selected educational insti13 tution fails to meet a requirement under this sub14 part for eligibility;

15 ‘‘(3) the dependent’s enrollment in or pursuit of

16 the educational program selected would fail to meet

17 the criteria established in this subpart for programs;

18 or

19 ‘‘(4) the dependent already is qualified by pre20 vious education or training for the educational, pro21 fessional, or vocational objective for which the edu22 cational program is offered.

23 ‘‘(c) NOTIFICATION.—The Attorney General shall no24 tify a dependent applying for assistance under this sub25 part of approval or disapproval of the application in writ26 ing.
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1 ‘‘SEC. 1214. REGULATIONS.

2 ‘‘The Attorney General may promulgate reasonable

3 and necessary regulations to implement this subpart.

4 ‘‘SEC. 1215. DISCONTINUATION FOR UNSATISFACTORY CON5 DUCT OR PROGRESS.

6 ‘‘The Attorney General may discontinue assistance

7 under this subpart when the Attorney General finds that,

8 according to the regularly prescribed standards and prac9 tices of the educational institution, the recipient fails to

10 maintain satisfactory progress as described in section

11 484(c) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C.

12 1091(c)).

13 ‘‘SEC. 1216. SPECIAL RULE.

14 ‘‘(a) RETROACTIVE ELIGIBILITY.—Notwithstanding

15 any other provision of law, each dependent of a Federal

16 law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty on or

17 after May 1, 1992, shall be eligible for assistance under

18 this subpart, subject to the other limitations of this sub19 part.

20 ‘‘(b) RETROACTIVE ASSISTANCE.—The Attorney

21 General may provide retroactive assistance to dependents

22 eligible under this section for each month in which the

23 dependent pursued a program of education at an eligible

24 educational institution. The Attorney General shall apply

25 the limitations contained in this subpart to retroactive as26 sistance.
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1 ‘‘(c) PROSPECTIVE ASSISTANCE.—The Attorney Gen2 eral may provide prospective assistance to dependents eli3 gible under this section on the same basis as assistance

4 to dependents otherwise eligible. In applying the limita5 tions on assistance under this subpart, the Attorney Gen6 eral shall include assistance provided retroactively. A de7 pendent eligible under this section may waive retroactive

8 assistance and apply only for prospective assistance on the

9 same basis as dependents otherwise eligible.

10 ‘‘SEC. 1217. DEFINITIONS.

11 ‘‘For purposes of this subpart:

12 ‘‘(1) The term ‘Attorney General’ means the

13 Attorney General of the United States.

14 ‘‘(2) The term ‘Federal law enforcement officer’

15 has the same meaning as under subpart 1.

16 ‘‘(3) The term ‘program of education’ means

17 any curriculum or any combination of unit courses

18 or subjects pursued at an eligible educational insti19 tution, which generally is accepted as necessary to

20 fulfill requirements for the attainment of a predeter21 mined and identified educational, professional, or vo22 cational objective. It includes course work for the at23 tainment of more than one objective if in addition to

24 the previous requirements, all the objectives gen-
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1 erally are recognized as reasonably related to a sin2 gle career field.

3 ‘‘(4) The term ‘eligible educational institution’

4 means an institution which—

5 ‘‘(A) is described in section 481 of the

6 Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C.

7 1088), as in effect on the date of the enactment

8 of this section; and

9 ‘‘(B) is eligible to participate in programs

10 under title IV of such Act.

11 ‘‘SEC. 1218. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

12 ‘‘There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out

13 this subpart such sums as may be necessary.’’.

Passed the Senate September 20, 1996.

Attest: KELLY D. JOHNSTON,

Secretary.