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Washington, DC - Congressman Tom Reed, announced Wednesday that he has joined colleagues reintroduced the School Resource Officer Act to assist law enforcement agencies in hiring additional school resource officers (SROs) by directing funds for cost-share grants to pay the salaries and benefits of SROs.

"We continue to receive tremendous amount of input from across the district while listening to superintendents, teachers, parents, mental health and law enforcement personnel about ways to make schools safer," Reed said. "From those conversations, it was clear we need to continue our emphasis on giving schools the ability to integrate School Resource Officers into their overall safety plan."

The School Resource Officer Act:

• Reauthorizes the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program at the Department of Justice at $300 million each fiscal year for FY2020-FY2023
• Designates 30% of COPS hiring funds for grants to pay the salaries and benefits of SROs
• Grants award 75% of salary and benefits for an SRO with a 25% local match requirement
• Maximum federal share cap is increased to $125,000 per officer position

Reed was joined by Paul Mitchell (R-MI), John Rutherford (R-FL), Neal Dunn (R-FL), Lloyd Smucker (R-PA), Don Bacon (R-NE), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Mark Meadows (R-NC), Tom Reed (R-NY), Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), Chris Collins (R-NY), and Dan Newhouse (R-WA) to reintroduce the bill.

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