Congress expands cop death benefits to retired officers
S. 911 — Chief Herbert D. Proffitt Act of 2025 · Filed by Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) · 9 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 10, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
This bill expands the federal Public Safety Officers' Death Benefits program to include retired law enforcement officers who die or become permanently disabled from targeted attacks related to their former service. The benefit applies retroactively to cases dating back to January 1, 2012, and covers retired officers from any public agency who separated in good standing.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is to expand an existing federal death-benefits program to a new category of beneficiaries (retired law enforcement). It is a straightforward eligibility amendment with no hidden provisions or narrow carve-outs.
What the text implies
- Retroactive application to 2012 may trigger a wave of claims from families of retired officers who died or were disabled in the prior 13 years but were previously ineligible; the fiscal impact depends on claim volume and Bureau of Justice Assistance processing capacity.
- Definition of 'targeted attack because of service' may generate disputes over causation — e.g., whether an attack on a retired officer years after separation was truly motivated by their former law enforcement role, creating potential litigation over eligibility.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Retired law enforcement officers and their families gain access to federal death and disability benefits they previously could not claim, recognizing service-related harm. The retroactive application (back to 2012) ensures families who suffered losses during that period are not excluded.
Who stands to gain
- families of retired law enforcement officers
- retired law enforcement officers
Named in the bill
Bureau of Justice Assistance, Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, Public Safety Officers' Death Benefits program, Chief Herbert D. Proffitt
Where it stands
9 cosponsors: 5 Democrats, 4 Republicans.
- Mar 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Mar 10, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
- May 15, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on the Judiciary. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably”
- Jul 29, 2025 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S4796; text: CR S4797)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $50,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 44 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Catherine Cortez Masto, the sponsor, reported $298,634 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Peace Officers Research Association of California — $50,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,711 characters) on Jun 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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 Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. 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 Jan 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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