Our first meeting of the day was with Rep. Mike Simpson’s office out of Idaho. Overall the meeting went well; we had a decent conversation and the Representative reiterated his support of law enforcement and has gotten behind several bills in a similar vein before. He said he would take a further look into H.R. 233 and its text. Rep. Simpson is already 100% on our scorecard.

Our next meeting was with Rep. Diana Harshbarger out of Tennessee. Rep. Harshbarger’s staff asked good questions about the particulars of qualified immunity, such as whether or not there was a specific data point for how much money civil cases against officers were costing them out of pocket, and whether there was some sort of remedial funds for them and their families. Rep. Harshbarger is already on H.R. 354 and is 100% on our Scorecard. 

Next was Rep. Lisa McClain’s office out of Michigan. Rep. McClain and her staff support all of the topics we brought up and is considering joining both the Law Enforcement Caucus and H.R. 233. Rep. McClain is 100% on our scorecard.

We continued our meetings on the Hill with Rep. Bill Huizenga’s office, who is also a Representative for Michigan. His staff was familiar with qualified immunity and was inquisitive about the specifics of H.R. 233 and agreed that there must be a standard which protects law enforcement officers from doing their jobs according to proper training. His staff was excited to review the bill text and get it in front of the Congressman and they were sure that the Congressman would also sign our Law Enforcement Pledge. He was also very interested in getting on the LEO Housing Act as this falls in line with Rep. Huizenga’s previous interests and supported bills. He also encouraged us to look into the bill “Social Security Fairness Act” and see if it was something we were interested in supporting. 

Our fifth meeting of the day was in Rep. Ronny Jackson’s office out of Texas. Meeting went well, and they were familiar with Qualified immunity and thought this was a good bill to support as Rep. Jackson’s district is very pro law enforcement. The Congressman is also considering joining the Law Enforcement Caucus and is happy to take a further look into the rest of the bills as well. Jackson is 100% on our scorecard. 

Our last scheduled meeting was with Rep. Frank Lucas out of Oklahoma. They were somewhat familiar with Qualified Immunity and asked good questions. They were surprised that there wasn’t already a federal precedent for the protection of officers against civil cases, and agreed that there must be a standard as this would bring in higher quality men and women on the force. The Congressman is likely to sign onto our America’s Law Enforcement pledge and will review H.R. 233. Lucas is 100% on our scorecard. 

We stopped by Jim Banks’ office and spoke with his staff for a moment, who mentioned that we should attempt to get into Rep. Clay Higgins’ office since he was previously a police officer as well.