During consideration of a budget resolution for fiscal 2025 (Senate Concurrent Resolution 7), Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) offered an amendment to provide increased resources for local law enforcement by funding the COPS Hiring Program, a federal grant program administered by the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). It provides funding to state, local, and tribal law-enforcement agencies to hire or rehire career law-enforcement officers.
The Senate rejected Luján’s amendment on February 21, 2025 by a vote of 48 to 52 (Roll Call 81). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the Constitution does not authorize federal involvement in domestic law enforcement, as affirmed by the 10th Amendment. The COPS Hiring Program undermines the decentralized structure of the U.S. federalist system, inserting federal influence into state and local policing and creating dependence on federal funding.
