Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati Correctional Officer Self-Protection Act of 2017

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 613, the Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati Correctional Officer Self-Protection Act of 2017. I support this bipartisan and commonsense bill to facilitate the ability of Federal Bureau of Prisons correctional officers to carry personal firearms for protection as they commute to and from their jobs.

This bill would allow the Bureau's correctional officers to protect themselves without jeopardizing the safety and the security of the facilities in which they work.

Currently, Bureau of Prisons correctional officers are authorized to carry concealed firearms for self-protection while off duty under the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, and this bill doesn't alter that existing privilege.

Instead, because there is no mechanism today to allow these correctional officers to store firearms that they might carry during their commutes to and from work, they are precluded from bringing their personal firearms onto the premises of these facilities and are therefore, in effect, precluded from carrying firearms for personal protection as they travel to and from the workplace.

To address this problem, H.R. 613 requires the Bureau of Prisons to allow properly qualified correctional officers to bring their firearms onto the premises of Bureau facilities in a manner that minimizes possible security and safety risks.

The Bureau would be required to either provide correctional officers with a secure storage area for their firearms located outside the secure perimeter of the prison or allow the officers to store their firearms in vehicle lockboxes approved by the Bureau.

Without question, correctional officers perform an essential and, indeed, an indispensable function within our criminal justice system, and we depend on them to keep all of our facilities safe, secure, and efficiently run for everyone. For some correctional officers, the inability to carry a firearm to and from work could leave them vulnerable to someone attempting to do them harm.

This bill is named, as my distinguished colleague from Virginia said, in honor of Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati, a Bureau officer who was ambushed and murdered as he drove home from his job at a Bureau detention center. Lieutenant Albarati was specifically targeted for the work he was doing at the institution.

We hope this legislation will prevent any future lethal attack on our officers. Accordingly, I would commend Mr. Goodlatte and others, the sponsor of the bill, for bringing this important measure forward, and I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation.

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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, as we recognize our hardworking law enforcement officers across America this week and honor those, like Lieutenant Albarati, who have given their lives to keep the rest of us safe, I am very proud to reiterate my support for the legislation.

Jackson Lee), the ranking member of the Criminal Justice Subcommittee, to control.

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