S. 1530 would amend the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program to permit the Department of Justice to award competitive grants to state, local, and tribal governments to increase police officer salaries up to 80 percent of the national median household income. To be eligible, a state or local government must be rural and serve a population whose median household income is less than 70 percent of the nationwide average. The bill also would decrease the share of nonfederal funds that rural grantees would need to contribute towards any grant under the COPS program. Under current law, COPS grants are subject to a rate of 75 percent federal funds and 25 percent nonfederal funds. Lastly, S. 1530 would require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report to the Congress on law enforcement officer pay and demographics.
Most underlying authorizations for the COPS program expired in 2009. The Congress has continued to provide funding for the program including an appropriation of $663 million in 2023. CBO is estimating the cost of whatever amounts are necessary to cover the costs of implementing the new activities specified in the bill and not the cost of reauthorizing the COPS program.
CBO estimates that S. 1530 would authorize the appropriation of $15 million over the 2024-2028 period for those new activities.
