Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy will chair a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, February 15, focused on the lifesaving Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Program, which has helped provide law enforcement officers in Vermont with over 3600 vests since 1999.
Leahy has invited Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling to testify before the panel in Washington, DC. Schirling will testify about the importance of the Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Program in helping small jurisdictions like those in Vermont purchase vests. Leahy was one of the lead authors of the grant program, which was enacted in 1998. Since then, he has worked to improve and reauthorize the program. In recent reauthorizations, he secured inclusion of a matching requirement to ensure that in smaller jurisdictions, including certain jurisdictions in Vermont, the federal grant will always amount to 50 percent of the purchase cost.
In its 2013 budget proposal released Monday, the Obama administration has indicated continued support for the grant program and included a budget request of $24 million for the next fiscal year.
The hearing is entitled ‘Protecting Those Who Protect Us: The Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Program,’ and will begin at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 15. Also testifying at the hearing will be David Mauer of the Government Accountability Office, and Chuck Canterbury, the National President of the Fraternal Order of Police. The hearing will be webcast live online.
Leahy's office. 2.14.2012
Burlington Police Chief Schirling to testify on bulletproof vest grant program
Submitted by tim
on