Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act of 2007

An original bill to promote school safety, improved law enforcement, and for other purposes.

9/21/2007--Reported to Senate without amendment. (This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)
School Safety and Law Enforcement Improvement Act of 2007 - Title I: School Safety Enhancements Act - Scho more...ol Safety Enhancements Act - Subtitle A: Elementary and Secondary Education Safety Enhancements -
(Sec. 111) Amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to:
(1) allow the placement and use of surveillance equipment in schools under the matching grant program for school security;
(2) allow the use of grant funds to establish hotlines or tiplines for reporting potentially dangerous students and situations and for making capital improvements to make school facilities more secure;
(3) set the federal matching share of program costs at 50%;
(4) establish an interagency task force to develop and promulgate a set of advisory school safety guidelines to be published in the Federal Register by June 1, 2008; and
(5) require grant applicants to consult with senior school professionals and law enforcement officers in preparing grant applications. Authorizes appropriations for FY2008-FY2009.
Subtitle B: Campus Public Safety Enhancement -
(Sec. 121) Authorizes the Attorney General to make grants, through the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, to establish and operate a National Center for Campus Public Safety. Directs the Attorney General, in establishing the Center, to consult with the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Education, and the Attorney General of each state. Authorizes appropriations for FY2008-FY2009.

(Sec. 122) Authorizes the Attorney General to make grants, through the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, to provide improved security at institutions of higher education. Requires the Attorney General to give a preference to institutions that have a demonstrated need for improved security and for financial assistance and that have evidenced the ability to make security improvements. Sets the federal share of program costs at 50%. Requires the Attorney General to make an annual report to Congress on school security grant program activities. Authorizes appropriations for FY2008-FY2009.
Title II: NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 - NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 - Subtitle A: Transmittal of Records -
(Sec. 211) Amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to:
(1) authorize the Attorney General to obtain electronic versions of information from federal agencies on persons disqualified from receiving firearms;
(2) require federal agencies to provide such information to the Attorney General, not less frequently than quarterly; and
(3) require federal agencies to update, correct, modify, or remove obsolete records and notify the Attorney General of such action to keep the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) up to date. Requires the Attorney General to submit annual reports to Congress on the compliance of federal agencies with such reporting requirements.
Requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to provide the Attorney General, updated not less than quarterly, information for determining whether a person is disqualified under the federal criminal code from possessing or receiving a firearm for use in NICS background checks.
Requires the Attorney General to:
(1) ensure that all NICS information received from federal agencies is kept accurate and confidential;
(2) provide for the removal and destruction of obsolete and erroneous names and information from the NICS; and
(3) work with states to encourage the development of computer systems for notifying the Attorney General when a court order has been issued or removed or a person has been adjudicated as mentally defective or committed to a mental institution. Prohibits federal agencies from providing a person's mental health or commitment information to the Attorney General if:
(1) such information has been set aside or expunged or the person involved has been fully released or discharged from all mandatory treatment, supervision, or monitoring;
(2) the person has been found to no longer suffer from a mental health condition or has been found to be rehabilitated; or
(3) the person has not been found to be a danger to himself or others or to lack the mental capacity to manage his own affairs.
(Sec. 212) Grants states a two-year waiver of the matching fund requirement (10%) for criminal justice identification grants if such states provide at least 90% of the information required to be transmitted to the NICS under this Act. Requires states to provide reasonable estimates of the number of records transmitted to the NICS for purposes of granting such waiver.
Requires states to make electronically available to the Attorney General records relating to persons:
(1) disqualified from possessing or receiving a firearm;
(2) convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence; and
(3) adjudicated as mentally defective or committed to mental institutions. Requires states to update, correct, modify, or remove obsolete records in the NICS.
Requires the Attorney General to:
(1) establish regulations and protocols to protect the privacy of information in the NICS; and
(2) report annually to the Judiciary Committees of Congress on the progress of states in automating criminal records databases and making such data available to the Attorney General.

(Sec. 213) Requires the Attorney General to make grants to states and Indian tribal governments to establish or upgrade information and identification technologies for firearms eligibility determinations. Allows up to 5% of grant funding for Indian tribal governments, including tribal judicial systems. Specifies allowable uses of grant funds. Authorizes appropriations for FY2009-FY2013.
Prohibits the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from charging user fees for NICS background checks.

(Sec. 214) Requires the Attorney General to submit to the Judiciary Committees of Congress an annual report on the progress of states in automating databases of information for transmittal to the NICS. Authorizes appropriations.
Provides for discretionary and mandatory penalties for states that fail to provide information required by this Act. Allows a waiver of such penalties for states that provide substantial evidence of reasonable efforts to comply with requirements for providing information.

(Sec. 215) Requires states, as a condition of grant eligibility, to establish procedures to allow persons with disabilities relating to mental health status or commitment to obtain relief from such disabilities for purposes of firearms eligibility. Requires states to allow de novo review in state courts of denials of relief.

(Sec. 216) Requires all records obtained by the National Instant Criminal Background Check system relating to possession of firearms by illegal aliens to be made available to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Subtitle B: Focusing Federal Assistance on the Improvement of Relevant Records -
(Sec. 221) Requires the Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics to:
(1) study and evaluate the operations of the NICS; and
(2) report to Congress annually on state estimates of records transmitted to the NICS and on best practices of states for handling information to be transmitted to the NICS. Authorizes appropriations for FY2009-FY2011.
Subtitle C: Grants to State Court Systems for the Improvement in Automation and Transmittal of Disposition Records -
(Sec. 231) Requires the Attorney General to make grants to states and Indian tribal governments for use by state and tribal court systems to improve the automation and transmittal of criminal history dispositions and records and mental health adjudications or commitments to federal and state record repositories and the NICS. Authorizes appropriations for FY2008-FY2010. Subtitle D: GAO Audit - Requires the Comptroller General to audit and report to Congress on whether expenditures for criminal records improvement under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act were made in accordance with such Act.
Title III: Equity in Law Enforcement Act - Equity in Law Enforcement Act - Amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to include within the definition of "public safety officer" certain law enforcement officers serving private institutions of higher education and rail carriers (thus qualifying such officers for line-of-duty death and disability benefits). Qualifies such officers for law enforcement armor vest grant programs and for state and local law enforcement assistance grants under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program.
Title IV: Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2007 - Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2007 -
(Sec. 402) Amends the federal criminal code to:
(1) include Amtrak and executive branch police officers in the authorization for active and retired law enforcement officers to carry concealed weapons;
(2) reduce from 15 to 10 years the length of service requirement for retired law enforcement officers to carry concealed weapons;
(3) eliminate the requirement that a retired law enforcement officer have a non-forfeitable right to retirement benefits to qualify for a concealed weapons permit; and
(4) revise firearms training and identification requirements for retired law enforcement officers who carry concealed weapons.

(Sec. 403) Directs the Comptroller General to study and report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on the number of active and retired law enforcement officers carrying concealed firearms.
Title V: PRECAUTION Act - Prevention Resources for Eliminating Criminal Activity Using Tailored Interventions in Our Neighborhoods Act of 2007 or the PRECAUTION Act -
(Sec. 504) Establishes the National Commission on Public Safety Through Crime Prevention. Directs the Commission to:
(1) hold public hearings;
(2) study and report to the President, Congress, and other federal and state officials on the effectiveness of crime and delinquency prevention and intervention strategies, organized around specified subcategories (i.e., family and community settings, law enforcement settings, and school settings); and
(3) make recommendations to the Director of the National Institute of Justice for the dissemination of innovative crime prevention and intervention strategy grants.

(Sec. 405) Authorizes the Director of the National Institute of Justice to make grants to public and private entities for the implementation and evaluation of innovative crime or delinquency prevention or intervention strategies. Requires grant recipients to:
(1) set aside specified grant funds for a rigorous study of the effectiveness of prevention or intervention strategies; and
(2) cooperate with the Commission by providing full information on the progress of such strategies. Authorizes appropriations.
Title VI: Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act of 2007 - Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act of 2007 - Amends the federal criminal code to:
(1) expand the prohibition against conveying false information and hoaxes to include false information and hoaxes about any federal crime of terrorism;
(2) increase maximum prison terms for hoaxes involving a member of the Armed Forces during war;
(3) revise civil liability provisions to allow emergency personnel to seek reimbursement of expenses from the perpetrator of a hoax who receives notice that such personnel are taking emergency or investigative actions and fails to inform parties of the hoax; and
(4) expand the prohibition against mailing threatening communications in the United States or to a foreign country to include threats against corporations and governmental entities (as well as individuals).

Sponsor

• Sen. Patrick Leahy [D, VT]

Committees

• Senate Judiciary

Amendments

This bill has no amendments.

Amendments to S.2084

Number	Status	Purpose

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Bill Status

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Introduced		Voted on by Senate		Voted on by House		Considered By President		Bill Becomes Law
September 21, 2007

Related Issue Areas:

• Criminal justice
• Actions and defenses
• Administrative procedure
• Budgets
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• Children
• Civil liberties
• Congress
• Congressional investigations
• Congressional reporting requirements
• Crime prevention
• Criminal justice information
• Data banks
• Department of Justice
• Education
• Equipment and supplies
• Executive departments
• Families
• Family violence
• Federal advisory bodies
• Federal aid to Indians
• Federal aid to education
• Federal aid to law enforcement
• Firearms
• Firearms control
• Fraud
• Government information
• Higher education
• Identification of criminals
• Illegal aliens
• Immigration
• Indian law enforcement
• Informers
• Juvenile delinquency
• Law
• Law enforcement officers
• Licenses
• Medical care
• Medical records
• Medicine
• Mental health
• Mental illness
• Minorities
• Pensions
• Police
• Right of privacy
• School security
• Security measures
• Students
• Survivors' benefits
• Technology
• Terrorism
• Terrorists
• Violence

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Blog Coverage

January 29, 2008 Selected List of US Federal Documents from Gallerywatch.com

01/28/2008, CBO Cost Estimate for the School Safety and Law Enforcement Improvement Act of 2007, S. 2084 (PDF 28.9 KB) Cost Estimate for the Bill as Reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 21, 2001 ...

Source: New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library
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January 24, 2008 S. 2084, School Safety and Law Enforcement Improvement Act of 2007

Cost estimate for the bill as reported by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on September 21, 2001.

Source: CBO's Latest 10 Documents
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November 01, 2007 From around the Web

"The truth is, S. 2084 -- and its House counterpart, HR 2640 -- may claim to deal with 'school safety,' but its real aim is to take away people's gun rights. ... Read the ENTIRE BILL, not just a few lines here and there. ...

Source: Blog of Darryl W. Perry
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