News

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and a bipartisan group of lawmakers in both chambers of Congress in reintroducing the EAGLES Act, legislation that would reauthorize and expand the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) to help communities proactively mitigate threats of violence at schools.
 
In addition to Rubio and Grassley, the legislation is cosponsored by Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Rick Scott (R-FL), Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Susan Collins (R-ME). Representatives Ted Deutch (D-FL) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) are leading identical legislation in the House.
 
“I’m pleased to again join my colleagues in reintroducing the EAGLES Act,” Rubio said. “The EAGLES Act leverages the National Threat Assessment Center to provide a proactive and multi-pronged approach to identify and stop threats of school violence. I thank Senator Grassley for his continued leadership on this legislation, and the Senate should quickly pass this bill.”
 
“The U.S. Secret Service has unique and unparalleled experience in identifying threats to safety and preventing tragedies,” Grassley said. “This bill builds on the Secret Service’s case study research on targeted school violence and enables the National Threat Assessment Center to train more of our nation’s schools in how to conduct threat assessments and early interventions. Equipping our communities and schools with training and best practices to recognize and prevent school violence is a vital step toward preventing future tragedies, and an important way to honor victims of school violence.”
 
For a full list of cosponsor quotes, click here. 
 
Background: 
 
The bill establishes a national program on targeted school violence prevention and provides additional resources to expand research and training on a national scale. The bill also requires Secret Service to develop an expansion plan and to provide periodic progress reports to Congress.
 
The bill is supported by the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, the National Fraternal Order of Police, the National Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, Sandy Hook Promise and families of those who perished in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.
  
Earlier this month, Rubio reintroduced his bipartisan Extreme Risk Protection Order and Violence Prevention Act (S. 292), which would dedicate Department of Justice funds to incentivize states to give law enforcement the authority to prevent individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others the ability to purchase or possess firearms, while still providing due process protections. Rubio first introduced this bill in March of 2018 following the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. A one-pager of the legislation is available here.
 
In January of 2019, Rubio and his colleagues introduced the bipartisan Threat Assessment, Prevention, and Safety (TAPS) Act of 2019 (S. 265), legislation that would create a task force of experts to provide recommendations for a national strategy to keep communities safe from targeted violence through threat assessment and management. A one-pager of the legislation is available here.