Making our Communities Safer
Every American deserves to live in a safe community – where they and their family can thrive. Throughout this Congress, I have fought for strong, commonsense action to provide law enforcement with the tools they need to prevent crime and protect our communities. We passed critical legislation to reduce gun violence, improve public safety and ensure accountability.
Table of Contents:
Securing Funding for Public Safety
Delivered funding to the City of Fresno to increase police staff time to address rising violence and crime (including additional police vehicles). This funding helped Fresno's 911 call center to ensure that 90% of all emergency calls can be answered in 15 seconds.
Secured $703,000 for Madera County Sheriff's Office to purchase a Rapid DNA system through the FY 23 government funding bill to bolster law enforcement's ability to quickly obtain accurate analysis, identify victims' remains, and relieve the backlog in crime laboratories.
Secured $457,000 for Merced County Sheriff's Office to purchase a Rapid DNA system through the FY 23 government funding bill to bolster law enforcement's ability to quickly obtain accurate analysis, identify victims' remains, and relieve the backlog in crime laboratories.
H.R. 2471 – The Fiscal Year 2022 Omnibus Appropriations Act (Signed into Law)
Earlier this year, I voted to pass the Commerce-Justice funding in the Fiscal Year 2022 Omnibus Appropriations bill, which was signed into law and included such items as the following:
Byrne JAG Grants: $674.5 million to provide state, tribal, and local government with critical funding necessary to support a range of programs such as law enforcement, prosecution, courts, crime prevention, drug treatment, and crime victim services, among other programs.
Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Grants: $512 million to hire community policing professionals, develop and test innovative policing strategies, and provide training and technical
STOP School Violence Act: $135 million to support and assist county, local, territorial, and tribal jurisdictions in improving efforts to reduce violent crime in and around schools.
Violence Against Women (VAWA) prevention and prosecution programs: $575 million for programs designed to develop the nation's capacity to reduce domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking by strengthening services to victims and holding offenders accountable.
Reducing Gun Violence
An overwhelming majority of Americans support common-sense gun safety reform. For the first time in nearly three decades, Congress enacted major gun safety legislation. I voted to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, historic gun reform that is the most significant piece of gun violence prevention legislation in nearly 30 years. This legislation was signed into law by President Biden.
From suicide and domestic violence to gun violence in our cities and mass shooting, the law creates commonsense gun safety regulations to tackle the problem from all angles.
Provides for enhanced background checks for people under age 21 seeking to purchase a gun.
Requires an investigative period to review juvenile and mental health records, including checks with state databases and local law enforcement, for gun buyers under 21 years of age, creating an enhanced longer background check of up to ten days.
Includes $750 million to help states implement “red flag” laws to remove firearms from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.
Includes a key provision to close the “boyfriend loophole.” Under this provision, individuals in “serious” “dating relationships” who are convicted of domestic abuse will be prevented from purchasing a gun.
Provides funds for improving school security and for mental health services in schools.
Additional Measures to Tackle Gun Violence:
Reauthorizing the Assault Weapons Ban: Co-sponsored and voted to pass H.R. 1808 - Assault Weapons Ban Act, which would make it unlawful for an individual to import, sell, manufacture, transfer, or possess a semiautomatic assault weapon (SAW) or large capacity ammunition feeding device (LCAFD). (Passed the House)
The legislation would permit continued possession, sale, or transfer of a grandfathered SAW, which must be securely stored. The United States then had an assault weapon ban from 1994 to 2004, when it expired.
The number of deaths and injuries from mass public shootings was significantly reduced during the 1994-2004 assault weapons ban. The likelihood of mass Shooting deaths fell by 70 percent when the 1994-2004 Assault Weapons Ban was in effect.
Strengthening Background Checks: Passed H.R. 8 – Bipartisan Background Checks Act, which would require a background check for every firearm sale. Additionally, I helped pass H.R. 1446 - Enhanced Background Checks Act, which would strengthen background check requirements applicable to proposed firearm transfers from a federal firearms licensee (e.g., a licensed gun dealer) to an unlicensed person. (Passed the House)
Protecting our Kids: Co-sponsored H.R. 7910 - Protecting Our Kids Act which would make a significant difference in reducing gun violence. (Passed the House)
Ensuring individuals under 21 years of age cannot purchase assault weapons.
Banning the sale of and possession of large-capacity magazines.
Clarifying that bump stocks, which allow individuals to convert semiautomatic weapons into machine guns, are banned under federal law.
- New Technologies to Reduce Gun Violence: Passed H.R 6538 - Active Shooter Alert Act, which requires a designated officer of the Department of Justice to act as the national coordinator of an Active Shooter Alert Communications Network regarding an emergency involving an active shooter. (Passed the House)
Providing Resources to Law Enforcement
Retaining Essential Workers: Passed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (PL 117-2), which included critical provisions to make our communities safer, by providing $350 billion to help keep police officers and other essential workers on the job. Since the pandemic began, 1.4 million of these essential workers (police officers, frontline health care workers, etc.) had lost their jobs, due to the tight budgets caused by the high expenses and reduced revenues created by the pandemic. This funding helped all our Valley police departments by retaining jobs, protecting their health, and keeping our communities safe.
Investing in Law Enforcement: Co-sponsored and passed the Invest to Protect Act to make targeted investments in local police departments and ensure those police officers in smaller communities across the country have the resources and training they need to keep themselves and their communities safe. Investments would be made in safety training, victim-centered response, officer recruitment and retention, mental health resources, and safety equipment. This bill would benefit local police departments that have 125 officers or fewer like the departments in the cities of Atwater, Chowchilla, Dos Palos, Gustine, Livingston, Los Banos, Madera, and Merced. Costa is an original co-sponsor of the bill. (Passed the House)
Supporting Mental Health Services for Law Enforcement: Passed the COPS Counseling Act, bipartisan legislation to support law enforcement officers seeking mental health services, while ensuring privacy, confidentiality, and the resources they need to improve their health and well-being. (Signed into Law)
Expanding Violence Prevention Programs: Co-sponsored and passed the Break the Cycle of Violence Act to create a federal grant program for violence intervention programs and initiatives. Costa is a co-sponsor of the bill. (Passed the House)
Ensuring Justice is Served: Passed the VICTIM Act, which would establish a grant program within the Department of Justice to hire, train and retain detectives and victim services personnel to investigate homicides and non-fatal shootings. Costa endorsed this legislation through the New Democrat Coalition. (Passed the House)
Improving Mental Health Services
Implementing Behavioral Health Emergency Units: Co-sponsored and passed the Mental Health Justice Act to create a grant program to allow states and local governments to hire mental health professionals to respond to behavioral health emergencies instead of the police. Costa is a co-sponsor of the bill. (Passed the House)
Access to Services & Treatment: Passed the Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act, a bipartisan legislative package that expands access to treatment for opioid-use disorders and reauthorizes 30 critical programs to support mental health, substance-use-disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery. (Passed the House)
Improving Mental Health Services at Schools: Passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which invests in programs to expand mental health and supportive services in schools, including early identification and intervention programs, school-based mental health and wrap-around services, improvements to school-wide learning conditions, and school safety.(Signed into Law)
988 Mental Health Hotline: Passed a continuing resolution to keep the government open, which included $62 million to support the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline to expand suicide prevention services, through the implementation of call, text, and chat messaging. (Signed into Law)
Supporting our Veterans: Passed the STRONG Veterans Act, gives the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) important new authorities and resources to support veterans’ mental health and well-being through increased training, outreach, mental health care delivery, and research. (Passed the House)
Cracking Down on Crime
Tackling the Opioid Crisis: Passed the Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act, which expands patient access to life-saving evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorders by eliminating the X-waiver, which imposes arbitrary limits on providers' ability to prescribe buprenorphine. Also, it eliminates barriers to access to methadone, another evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorders. These barriers can prevent patients from getting timely access to treatment. (Passed the House)
Tackling the Fentanyl Crisis: Passed the Extending Temporary Emergency Scheduling of Fentanyl Analogues Act to permanently schedule all fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs to ensure law enforcement can keep them off the streets. (Signed into Law)
Addressing Rising Abuse of Methamphetamines: Passed the Methamphetamine Response Act, which designates methamphetamine as an emerging drug threat and directs the Office of National Drug Control Policy to implement a methamphetamine response plan. (Signed into Law)
Combatting the Rise of Asian Hate Crimes: Co-sponsored and voted to pass the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act helps tackle the dramatic increase in hate crimes and violence against Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Signed into Law)
Designating Lynching as a Federal Hate Crime: Co-sponsored and voted to pass the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which explicitly designates lynching as a hate crime under federal law for the first time. (Signed into Law)
Helping Solve Cold Cases: Co-sponsored and passed the Homicide Victims' Families' Rights Act, which allows families of cold case victims to request a review of a case and potentially trigger reinvestigations. (Signed into Law)
Combatting Retail Crime: Co-sponsored the Improving Federal Investigations of Organized Retail Crime Act, bipartisan legislation to address organized retail crimes hurting retailers and endangering public safety.
Cracking down on Porch Pirates: Co-sponsored the Porch Pirates Actto apply the same federal penalties that apply to the theft of United States Postal Service (USPS) mail to the theft of commercial packages from private carriers such as Amazon, FedEx, and UPS.
Combatting Domestic Violence
Protecting Victims of Child Abuse: Introduced H.R. 7419 - Victims of Child Abuse Act (VOCAA) Reauthorization Act would provide funding to Children’s Advocacy Centers to help victims of child abuse and strengthen law enforcement’s response to hold perpetrators accountable.
Standing Up for Victims & Survivors of Crime: Introduced bipartisan legislation to formalize a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) to implement the use of multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) in child sexual abuse and exploitation cases.
Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault: Passed the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act allows sexual harassment and sexual assault survivors to elect to file a case in a court of law rather than be subject to forced arbitration provisions in cases involving sexual harassment or sexual assault, which deprive survivors of their rights. (Signed into Law)
Supporting Victims of Domestic Violence: Successfully advocated and passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which reauthorized all current VAWA grant programs until 2027. Its reauthorization strengthened the response to healthcare services, sexual assault prevention, improved evidence-based practices, and increased access to services to cope and heal from trauma. Costa was an original co-sponsor of the bill. This bill was signed into law by President Biden as part of the Fiscal Year 2022 government funding bill.
Closing the Boyfriend Loophole: Passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which includes a key provision to close the “boyfriend loophole.” Under this provision, individuals in “serious” “dating relationships” who are convicted of domestic abuse will be prevented from purchasing a gun. (Signed into Law)
Supporting vital Victim Service Programs: Passed the VOCA Fix Act of 2021, which addresses declining revenue by enabling new funding from out-of-court settlements, rather than relying directly on criminal cases, providing a significant boost to groups such as Fresno’s Marjaree Mason Center in helping crime victims and their families. (Signed into Law)