{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/senate-advances-grassley-backed-bill-to-invest-in-local-law-enforcement", "Senate Advances Grassley-Backed Bill to Invest in Local Law Enforcement", "2024-12-19", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "Senate", "IA", "Chuck Grassley", "G000386", "www.grassley.senate.gov", "grassley", "https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) applauded the Senate\u2019s unanimous passage of their bipartisan Invest to Protect Act to boost local police departments\u2019 access to training, mental health support, recruitment and retention resources.\n\n\u201cMany Iowans have told me they\u2019re concerned about the low recruitment and retention rates of police officers in their communities,\u201d Grassley said. \u201cThe Senate\u2019s unanimous support for this bill will bring us one step closer to unlocking local law enforcement\u2019s access to critical resources to strengthen and grow their forces. As always, I\u2019m proud to back the blue and I\u2019ll work to protect our state\u2019s courageous officers.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe funding from this bill will help the vast majority of police departments across the country make meaningful investments in their officers and their communities,\u201d Cortez Masto said. \u201cOur police officers put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe \u2013 and for law enforcement in small suburbs, Tribes and rural areas, that stress is compounded by a lack of funding and few full-time officers. It\u2019s time we gave them a leg up and delivered them the critical resources they need.\u201d\n\nAdditional cosponsors include Sens. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).\n\nThe bill is endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Association of Police Organizations and the National Sheriffs\u2019 Association.\n\nBill text is available HERE.\n\nBackground:\n\nMost police departments in the U.S. employ fewer than 200 full-time officers. In Iowa and across the country, these departments struggle to compete with larger law enforcement agencies for access to critical resources.\n\nThe Invest to Protect Act establishes a grant program through Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), setting aside $250 million to help local law enforcement agencies make meaningful investments in their officers and communities. The bill also simplifies the grant application process, reducing the application time to less than two hours so that small agencies without dedicated grant-writing staff can more easily access funding.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/senate-advances-grassley-backed-bill-to-invest-in-local-law-enforcement"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9154151193797588, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}