Bill speeds up death pay for families of fallen police workers
S. 3897 — Officer John Barnes and Chief Michael Ansbro Public Safety Officers' Benefit Program Expansion Act of 2026 · Filed by Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) · 14 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 24, 2026 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill makes death pay reach families faster. It requires the government to tell families within 90 days if forms are missing. The government must make a final choice within 270 days. If it takes longer, families get money right away while they wait. That money counts toward their final pay.
Who it affects
Families of fallen police, firefighters, and other safety workers get money faster. Small police departments and workers with health problems get more help.
One thing to notice
Families can get money while waiting for a final choice. That money counts toward what they will get at the end.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
14 cosponsors: 10 Democrats, 4 Republicans.
- Feb 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Feb 24, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
- May 14, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on the Judiciary. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably”
- Aug 7, 2026 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
3 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 3 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $100,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 22 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 61% of bills with any report.
Kirsten Gillibrand, who sponsored the bill, received $163,678 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Sergeants Benevolent Association of New York City — $40,000 in 1 report
- American Security Fund — $30,000 in 1 report
- American Security Fund — $30,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- safety workers — Police, firefighters, and other people who protect communities
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (6,963 characters) on Jul 9, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-17.
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