Wrap up of 112th Congress Justice and Public Safety bills signed into law
Here’s a quick wrap up of Justice and Public Safety related bills passed by the 112th Congress…r/Chuck
- Katie Sepich Enhanced DNA Collection Act of 2012 authorizes grants to offset states’ costs for testing the DNA of arrestees. The new law does not require states to collect DNA from arrestees, and participation in the grant program would be voluntary.
- Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act of 2012 bans the use of synthetic marijuana, known as “K-2” or “Spice,” and other synthetic drugs, such as bath salts. The bill adds the cannabimimetic agents and several hallucinogenic substances to Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act. The law also extends the period for which the Attorney General may temporarily schedule a substance to two years with a one-year extension. Previously, a substance could only be put temporarily on the Schedule I list for one year with a six-month extension. The bill passed as an amendment to the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act.
- SAFE DOSES Act increases the federal penalties for the theft of drugs, medical devices and infant formula before the products reach store shelves. The goal is to target criminal organizations that steal sensitive goods for resale in the wholesale drug market. Under the new law, the maximum sentence is 20 years, or up to 30 years if the offense resulted in serious bodily injury or death.
- Residential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011changed the way about 10 percent of all presidential appointments are handled, thereby reducing the burden on the Senate and the time spent getting new appointees approved. Under the new law, the President will appoint, but the Senate will no longer need to confirm, the directors of the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Bureau of Justice Statistics, (BJS), National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Office of Victims of Crime (OVC) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).
- Resolving a long-standing priority of the emergency management and law enforcement community, Congress passed a bill allocating to public safety the D Block section of the nation’s telecommunications spectrum. In addition to designating the D Block for public safety, the bill set aside $7 billion for the build out of a nationwide public safety broadband network and provides for the governance of the spectrum and for the preservation of the 700 MHz narrowband voice spectrum.
- Child Protection Act of 2012 increases the maximum penalties from 10 to 20 years for child pornography offenses that involve prepubescent children or children under the age of 12. The new law allows a federal court to issue a protective order if it determines that a child victim or witness is being harassed or intimidated and imposes criminal penalties for violation of a protective order. The Act also reauthorizes for five years the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Forces, a national network of investigators who have arrested more than 30,000 individuals involved in child exploitation since 1998.
- Investigative Assistance for Violent Crimes Act of 2012 authorizes the Attorney General or Secretary of Homeland Security, at the request of a state or local government, to assist in the investigation of violent acts and shootings occurring at schools, colleges, universities, nonfederal office buildings, malls, and other public places, and in the investigation of mass killings and attempted mass killings. The new law defines “mass killings” as three or more killings in a single incident.