I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4854 

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

award grants for providing legal resources for petitioners seeking extreme 

risk protection orders, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 25, 2023 

Ms. CHU (for herself, Mr. GOLDMAN of New York, and Ms. SA ́NCHEZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 

Act of 1968 to award grants for providing legal resources 

for petitioners seeking extreme risk protection orders, 

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 ‘‘Fair Legal Access 

5 Grants Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. LEGAL RESOURCES FOR EXTREME RISK PROTEC2 TION ORDER PETITIONERS. 

3 Subpart I of part E of title I of the Omnibus Crime 

4 Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10151 

5 et seq.) is amended— 

6 (1) by redesignating section 509 as section 510; 

7 and 

8 (2) by inserting after section 508 the following: 

9 ‘‘SEC. 509. LEGAL RESOURCES FOR EXTREME RISK PRO10 TECTION ORDER PETITIONERS. 

11 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

12 ‘‘(1) COVERED PETITIONER.—The term ‘cov13 ered petitioner’ means an individual who is eligible 

14 to seek an extreme risk protection order from an ap15 plicable State or Tribal court. 

16 ‘‘(2) EXTREME RISK PROTECTION ORDER.—The 

17 term ‘extreme risk protection order’ means a written 

18 order or warrant, issued by a State or Tribal court 

19 or signed by a magistrate or other comparable judi20 cial officer, the primary purpose of which is to re21 duce the risk of firearm-related death or injury by— 

22 ‘‘(A) prohibiting a named individual from 

23 owning, purchasing, possessing, receiving, or 

24 having under the custody or control of the indi25 vidual a firearm; or 


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1 ‘‘(B) having a firearm removed or requir2 ing the surrender of a firearm from a named 

3 individual. 

4 ‘‘(3) FIREARM.—The term ‘firearm’ has the 

5 meaning given the term in section 921 of title 18, 

6 United States Code. 

7 ‘‘(b) AUTHORITY.— 

8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General shall 

9 award grants to States, local governments, and Trib10 al Governments for the purpose of providing legal 

11 representation and resources to covered petitioners. 

12 ‘‘(2) USE OF FUNDS.—A State, local govern13 ment, or Tribal Government that receives a grant 

14 under paragraph (1) may use amounts from the 

15 grant to— 

16 ‘‘(A) ensure covered petitioners have access 

17 to counsel and interpretation and translation 

18 services; 

19 ‘‘(B) establish legal resources centers— 

20 ‘‘(i) for publishing and distributing in21 formation and responding to inquiries re22 lating to the extreme risk protection order 

23 legal process of the applicable State or 

24 Tribal Government; and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) that focus on expanding re2 sources in multiple languages other than 

3 English; 

4 ‘‘(C) hire personnel to— 

5 ‘‘(i) process and represent covered pe6 titioners, such as personnel in local district 

7 attorney offices and law enforcement agen8 cies; or 

9 ‘‘(ii) serve as legal resource coordina10 tors; 

11 ‘‘(D) award subgrants to nonprofit organi12 zations that provide community legal aid; and 

13 ‘‘(E) train legal service providers, law en14 forcement officers, prosecutors, court personnel, 

15 and other individuals on the differences between 

16 an extreme risk protection order and a domestic 

17 violence protection order to ensure that victims 

18 of domestic violence seek the form of protection 

19 order that best addresses their safety needs. 

20 ‘‘(c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

21 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

22 $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2031.’’. 

23 SEC. 3. JURISDICTION OF FEDERAL COURTS. 

24 (a) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘‘covered 

25 petitioner’’ has the meaning given the term in section 


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1 509(a) of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets 

2 Act of 1968, as added by section 2 of this Act. 

3 (b) NO JURISDICTION.—No Federal court may exer4 cise jurisdiction over a Federal, State, Tribal, or local 

5 cause of action in response to a covered petitioner filing 

6 a petition for an extreme risk protection order if the cov7 ered petitioner did not file a false or intentionally 

8 harassing petition. 

Æ 


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