Our Police Officers’ Defense Coalition political team met with Greg Steube’s office out of Florida. Their team was familiar with Qualified Immunity, and the Congressman has family members that were cops. Rep. Steube’s staff that said he would be happy to bring HR233 to Steube’s attention and thanked us for our endorsement. He had a few questions concerning the clarity of standards and wording (he was a prosecutor himself) but other than that, he seemed enthusiastic about Qualified Immunity. 

We also had a meeting in Rep. David Joyce’s office out of Ohio. Their team was somewhat familiar with Qualified Immunity, but Rep. Joyce is not on the Law Enforcement Caucus yet. We also urged him to sign America’s Law Enforcement Pledge.  

Our 3rd meeting on the Hill was with Rep. Carlos Gimenez’ office out of Florida. He was familiar with the importance of Qualified Immunity and Rep. Gimenez is already on H.R. 743. Carlos thinks it will not be a problem to push H.R.233 forward and plans to sign the pledge. 

We had a great meeting with Paul Gosar’s staff, and they were familiar with Qualified Immunity and asked strong questions about the logistics of Qualified Immunity and how the effects moving forward. Rep. Gosar is in the law enforcement caucus, and also brought to our attention the new bill 3269 regarding “Lethal weapons” based on Axon’s new product of a lethal taser. Overall, seemed hopeful about potentially signing on. 

We also met with Rep. Troy Balderson, Rep. Buddy Carter, and Rep. Dan Crenshaw. Rep. Carter is not on Law Enforcement Caucus, but our meeting went very well and the staff said that getting our pro law enforcement legislation to Carter would be their first priority. 

We ended our day on the Hill with a meeting in Rep. Andy Harris’s office. The staff was enthusiastic when speaking of reviewing H.R. 233 with Harris and believed it shouldn’t be a difficult decision to sign.

Overall, the meetings went very well and 5 out of the 8 representatives we spoke with today were on the law enforcement caucus!