Retired Law Enforcement Officers Continuing Service Act
Sponsored By: Representative Harder, Josh [D-CA-9]
Introduced
Summary
Creates a DOJ grant program called Civilian Law Enforcement Task Grants to fund retired officers for specified non-arrest investigative and technical roles. It defines which civilian tasks qualify and sets training and hiring checks for those rehired personnel.
Show full summary
- State, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies can use grants to hire retired officers to train civilian staff or perform eight specified tasks, including homicide, carjacking, financial crimes, camera review, crime scene analysis, forensics, and IT support.
- Retired officers must have appropriate and reasonably current training or complete continuing education to qualify and they may not make arrests or use force. Agencies must search the National Decertification Index and request prior personnel records, and the top agency official must review any misconduct findings before hiring.
- Grants are subject to DOJ Inspector General audits starting the first fiscal year after enactment. A recipient with an unresolved audit finding is ineligible for Part PP grants for 2 fiscal years and the Attorney General will prioritize applicants without unresolved findings during the prior 3 fiscal years and report on similar grants awarded to the same applicant.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
1 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Grants to hire retired officers
This bill would let the Justice Department give grants to State, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies to hire retired officers to train staff and do civilian work, such as helping with homicide, carjacking, and financial-crime cases; compliance reporting; reviewing camera footage; crime-scene and forensics work; and IT support. These roles would not allow arrests or use of force. Agencies would need to certify up-to-date training or continuing education, check the National Decertification Index or prior personnel files for misconduct, and have the chief review any findings before hiring. The DOJ Inspector General would audit grantees every year starting the first fiscal year after enactment; if a final audit shows unallowable costs not fixed within 12 months, that agency would be barred from these grants for the next two fiscal years, and agencies with clean records would get priority. The Attorney General would compare similar grants, report repeat awards and annual audit results to Congress, and list any excluded recipients.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Harder, Josh [D-CA-9]
CA • D
Cosponsors
Rep. Fitzpatrick, Brian K. [R-PA-1]
PA • R
Sponsored 6/9/2025
Swalwell
CA • D
Sponsored 6/9/2025
Rep. Nunn, Zachary [R-IA-3]
IA • R
Sponsored 6/9/2025
Rep. Vasquez, Gabe [D-NM-2]
NM • D
Sponsored 11/7/2025
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov