Washington, DC - Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, expressed anger and frustration with today’s vote on an administrative resolution that hampered the FOP’s effort to win a vote on H.R. 82, the “Social Security Fairness Act.”  In the aftermath of the vote, House leadership reached out to Representatives Rodney L. Davis (R-IL) and Abigail A. Spanberger (D-VA) and offered to work with them to address the impact of the recent rule changes.

“We have always worked very closely and in good faith with the leadership of the House and I am very pleased that they are looking for a way to address this issue together,” Yoes said.  “It seems mostly likely that the next time the House considers a ruled bill—which will be sometime in September—they will retroactively roll back the new provisions to the rule that impacted the consideration of H.R. 82.  I don’t think the process matters.  At this point, what is important is that we address this in a cooperative and bipartisan way.”

Earlier today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass H. Res. 1289, a short and routine administrative resolution governing debate on a legislative branch appropriations measure, which also changed existing House rules with respect to how bills with more than 290 cosponsors are to be considered.  Before the adoption of the rule today, any bill with more than 290 cosponsors over the course of 25 legislative days would be placed on the Consensus Calendar and then to the House floor for a vote.  The rule eliminated many of the legislative days we need to meet the 25-day requirement.

“The FOP and our bill sponsors worked hard to get to more than 290 cosponsors on H.R. 82 and we earned our way to a floor vote.  I think the leadership of the House recognizes that, and we stand ready to work with them to get there,” Yoes said.  “Our bill is all about fairness and I am very encouraged that the leadership is addressing this fairly.”

“In the meantime, I urge our members to keep calling their Representatives and Senators to ask them to support H.R. 82 and the Senate companion bill, S. 1302!”