Norton to Introduce Bill to Overhaul FPS, Following Navy Yard Shooting and GAO Report

WASHINGTON, DC – The office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that when Congress returns from recess after the New Year, Norton will introduce a bill to overhaul the Federal Protective Service (FPS), which, with approximately 1,000 law enforcement officers and 13,500 contract guards, is responsible for protecting about 9,600 General Services Administration facilities nationwide. Norton said the "final straw" was the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the FPS issued this week, which follows many GAO reports that Norton said show that "the FPS is a hybrid police force whose duties and responsibilities are so unclear as to render them toothless in an emergency. She continued, "The twelve victims of the Navy Yard shooting in September remind us of how federal facilities can become targets of violence." The GAO found that the armed private contract security guards, who are the first responders at government facilities, have not received the training necessary to respond to an active shooter, and that many have not even received x-ray and magnetometer training. The bill, whose details Norton is still hashing out, will, among other provisions, define the authority of the FPS and the legal authority of its contract guards, clarify how the FPS is monitored, and require new transparency measures.

"Most telling, Facilities Securities Committees, consisting of employees of each agency with no security experience, not FPS, decide security measures for each government facility," said Norton. "In effect, the FPS, with only 1,000 law enforcement officers and 13,500 contract guards, is a police force in name only. I have been working with the FPS since they were a part of the General Services Administration, but their shift to the Department of Homeland Security has done nothing to improve their performance. This is not an indictment of the officers, but of the legal and professional limbo that their current status and structure create."

Dating back to the early-2000s, Norton has held and participated in hearings and press conferences to call attention to issues of concern and the need to reform the FPS.

Published: December 19, 2013