Our meeting with Vern Buchanan’s office out of FL (R) went well – Rep. Buchanan knows that Rep. Banks is moving over to the Senate side so Blake mentioned that if we needed someone to sponsor HR 233 next congress he believed Buchanan would gladly get on it. He is not on the caucus but will run it by the congressman.

Our meeting with Ashley Hinson’s office out of IA (R) also went well – Rep. Hinson is on the Law Enforcement Caucus and is also on H.R. 743, H.R. 3170, and H.R. 758, so there is a good chance we can get Rep. Hinson onto Qualified immunity as well. She mentioned that we should contact Rep. Jim Costa (D) out of CA too, as he has supported law enforcement in the past.

Rep. John Duarte’s (CA R) meeting was interesting. His staff was somewhat familiar with H.R. 233 but agreed that trust in law enforcement needs to be restored. Rep. Duarte was previously the sponsor of a bill supporting law enforcement against drug trafficking crime, and believes Qualified immunity would be another good one to support. Rep. Duarte is not currently on the Law enforcement Caucus, but could be interested in the future.

The meeting with Rep. Marie Perez’ office out of WA (D) was very productive and pleasant. They agreed that H.R. 233 would fall under Rep. Perez’ potential interests as she is also interested in supporting a bill for child care for law enforcement officers. Rep. Perez is not on the Law Enforcement Caucus but her team believes that this would be a no brainer for the congresswoman to get on. They also agreed that Qualified immunity would help departments keep their standards high and would be glad to show it to Rep. Perez and hopefully get her support.

Our final meeting of the day was with Rep. Aaron Bean’s office out of FL (R). Meeting with his staff was very positive as Rep. Bean is already on the Law Enforcement Caucus and is a big supporter of Law Enforcement Officers in general. He is 100% on our scorecard and was very interested in getting on both Qualified immunity and the Helping Hands legislation.

The day went overall very well and everyone we spoke with was engaged and positive!