Patrick Leahy: “I support extending the educational assistance benefits to the families of public safety officers who died in the line…”

“I support extending the educational assistance benefits to the families of public safety officers who died in the line of duty. I supported those efforts when we acted for federal officers' families back in 1996 and when we extended those benefits to State and local officers' families in 1998. A number of us joined with Senator Specter and Senator Kohl back in 1996 to pass the Federal Law Enforcement Dependents Assistance Act. Our efforts grew out of the Ruby Ridge investigation and our shared concern to help the family of U.S. Marshal Bill Degan and the families of others killed in the line of duty. At the time we were unable to gain the consensus needed to authorize these education benefits to State and local law enforcement officers. We came back in 1997 and 1998 and were able to pass the Public Safety Officers Educational Benefits Assistance Act to extend these educational benefits to State and local public safety officers. I am delighted to see these benefits expanded further by extending them retroactively by this bill, S. 1638.”