Manchin, Bipartisan Colleagues Reintroduce EAGLES Act to Prevent Violence in Schools

Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rick Scott (R-FL), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Angus King (I-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME) reintroduced the EAGLES Act to help prevent acts of mass violence in West Virginia and across the country. The legislation would expand the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) to include a greater focus on preventing targeted violence, including school violence.

 

“Every child deserves to feel safe in the classroom, and school gun violence is a heartbreaking issue that far too many American families have faced. I’m proud to reintroduce this commonsense, bipartisan legislation to expand programs offered by NTAC and help our law enforcement officials understand and mitigate threats at our schools,” Senator Manchin said. “I will continue working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to protect our children and prevent violence in schools across West Virginia and the United States.”

 

The NTAC provides research and training for behavioral threat assessment and targeted violence, including school shootings and other public threats. The legislation reintroduced today creates a national program on targeted school violence prevention and expands the NTAC's research and training on school violence and its dissemination of information on school violence prevention initiatives. Through the bill’s school safety initiative, the NTAC will coordinate trainings and plans with the Department of Justice and Department of Education. The bill also requires the Secret Service to provide periodic progress reports to Congress.

 

“Accurate behavioral threat assessments and early interventions are essential to maintaining a safe environment in our schools and communities and preventing another tragedy from taking place,” said Senator Grassley. “The U.S. Secret Service is uniquely equipped to help evaluate these threats, and our bill would enable them to share their tools and expertise with school safety partners across the country. While we can never bring back the lives tragically lost in horrific acts of violence, we must do all we can to honor their memories by preventing future violence from occurring.” 

 

“The EAGLES Act would leverage the National Threat Assessment Center to provide a proactive and multi-pronged approach to identify and stop threats of school violence,” said Senator Rubio. “I thank Senator Grassley for his continued leadership on this legislation, and urge the Senate to pass this bill.”

 

“In the five years since the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, we’ve worked every day to honor the 17 lives taken and to protect our schools, students and educators,” said Senator Scott. “Our bipartisan bill, the EAGLES Act, is an important step to improve school safety and provide more resources to law enforcement to prevent future tragedies from happening. I urge my colleagues to finally pass this bill.”

  

“Our country has seen far too many acts of violence. Americans deserve to live their lives safely—at school, at grocery stores, at concerts, at places of worship, the list goes on,” said Senator King. “The EAGLES Act is a simple, commonsense, important step to stop mass violence before it happens and keep communities safe from these tragedies. This bill will build on the National Threat Assessment Center track record of success and empower them to share their vast information resources wider to prevent future threats. I’m proud to join the bipartisan, bicameral coalition working on this bill and hope we can ensure its swift passage to help stop mass violence across our nation.”

 

“No child should feel unsafe in the classroom, and it is imperative that we take action to ensure that schools are a safe learning environment for students, teachers, and staff,” said Senator Collins. “This legislation would improve research and training to prevent targeted violence, including threats to schools.  This is one of many commonsense steps that we can take to help protect our communities.”

 

Companion legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL).