Update on Hometown Heroes Act

Dear Members,

The Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) just released

the Attorney General's Guide to the Hometown Heroes Survivors' Benefits Act

(please find attached:  Hometown Heroes Guide or at www.psob.gov  ).  This

guide is a useful tool for any agency or organization that is assisting

survivors with the process of applying for survivor death benefits through

the Hometown Heroes Act.
 

President Bush signed the Hometown Heroes Act into law in December 2003. 

The provisions of the Hometown Heroes Act were finally implemented in

September 2006, almost three years later.  Although it took an extraordinary

amount of time to implement the Act, NAPO was pleased to see that the

BJA had incorporated many of NAPO's suggestions in the final regulations for

implementation of the Hometown Heroes Act. 
 

Over the past two years, however, NAPO has been frustrated with the BJA's

implementation of the Act.  In July of last year, four years after

the passage of the law, approximately 200 claims had been filed by families

under the Hometown Heroes Act.  Out of those 200 claims, the BJA had only

completely reviewed fifty cases and only six of those cases had been

approved to receive benefits under the Act. 
 

On Tuesday, after a year of calling on the BJA to act more quickly on

determining grieving survivors claims, NAPO was pleased to hear from the

Director of the BJA, Domingo Herraiz, that his office and the PSOB office

had made substantial improvements in claim reviews and claim turn around

time.  NAPO continues to work closely with the BJA to ensure that survivors

get the help and benefits they deserve in a fair and timely manner.  Please

find attached the latest BJA numbers regarding the movement of claims

through the system.

If you have any questions regarding the Hometown Heroes Act or the

PSOB program, please feel free to contact me. 
 

Thank you,

Andy

Andrea Mournighan

Director of Governmental Affairs

National Association of Police Organizations

317 S. Patrick Street

Alexandria, VA 22314

(703) 549-0775

(571) 309-2923 (cell)

(703) 684-0515 (fax)