I know that Senator Robb strongly supports this bill and I ask that a letter he sent to me urging prompt Committee action of this bill be inserted in the record.

I support extending the educational assistance benefits to the families of public safety officers who died in the line of duty. I supported those efforts when we acted for federal officers’ families back in 1996 and when we extended those benefits to State and local officers’ families in 1998.

A number of us joined with Senator Specter and Senator Kohl back in 1996 to pass the Federal Law Enforcement Dependents Assistance Act. I recall that Senator Kennedy, Senator Biden, Senator Feinstein, Senator Thurmond, Senator Grassley, Senator Simpson and the Chairman cosponsored that effort, as well. My recollection is that our efforts grew out of the Ruby Ridge investigation that was led by Senators Specter and Kohl and our common concern to help the family of U.S. Marshal Bill Degan and the families of others killed in the line of duty.

At that time we were unable to gain the consensus needed to authorize these education benefits to State and local law enforcement officers. Some thought that would cost too much.

We came back in 1997 and 1998 and were able to pass the Public Safety Officers Educational Benefits Assistance Act to extend those benefits to State and local public safety officers. We were led in this effort by Senators Specter and Biden and, again, a number of members of this Committee cosponsored that effort– I recall in particular, Senator Kennedy, Senator Durbin and Senator Abraham.

I am delighted to see these benefits expanded further by extending them retroactively. I am told that the estimated cost of this expansion will be $125 million. I commend Senator Ashcroft and all the sponsors of this measure for their willingness to make this investment and authorize these payments.

I do have some questions about the bill and how it will work, but I will not insist on their answer here today. For example, I am puzzled why we are simply moving the eligibility dates back approximately between 14 and 19 years, instead of removing them. The dates selected in the bill are too late in 1978 to apply to the two Vermont officers who died that year. I would want to be sure that a date is not chosen that might arbitrarily disqualify, for example, the family of Arnold Magoon a Vermont Game Warden, because he died on April 27 and not after May 1 or October 1 of 1978.

In addition, I look forward to enacting additional measures that protect and assist State and local law enforcement. In particular, I was extremely disappointed last year when an anonymous Republican objection prevented S.521, my bill to improve the Bulletproof Vest Grant Partnership Act, from passing. This bill, which Senator Campbell strongly supports as well, would allow the Attorney General to waive or reduce the matching fund requirement for assisting poor and rural law enforcement units to provide this life-saving equipment to officers and prevent injury and death. I cannot understand why anyone would want to oppose that bipartisan effort.

Accordingly, I look forward to working with others who support S. 1638 to speed its passage and to help it achieve its goal of making these assistance payments comprehensive.