Goodlatte Statement at Markup of the Lt. Osvaldo Albarati Correctional Officer Self-Protection Act

Washington, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) today submitted the following remarks for the record during the House Judiciary Committee’s markup of the Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati Correctional Officer Self-Protection Act of 2017 (H.R. 613). Chairman Goodlatte: Nearly 13 years ago, Congress passed and President Bush signed the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act.  That law gives certain law enforcement officers, including correctional officers of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), the right to carry a concealed firearm throughout the United States for self-protection.  The law also allows law enforcement officers to carry their firearms while off-duty.  However, BOP does not permit its correctional officers to safely store their personal firearms in a secure locker at its facilities. Unfortunately, this leaves correctional workers vulnerable to attack during their commute to and from work. Sadly, the threat of an attack on a correctional officer while commuting to or from a prison is not a hypothetical situation.  On the evening of February 26, 2013, BOP Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati was ambushed and murdered while on his way home from work.  The shooting was carried out with the complicity of federal inmates housed at Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. Authorities believe that Lieutenant Albarati’s murder was a direct result of his work at the prison – specifically, in retaliation for his investigations into cell phone smuggling at the MDC. H.R. 613 makes a common-sense amendment to Federal law to address the problem highlighted by this tragedy.  This bipartisan bill, cosponsored by a half-dozen of our Democratic colleagues, would direct BOP to provide a secure storage area located outside the secure perimeter of each BOP facility, where correctional officers will be able to store their personal firearms, and allow employees to store firearms in a vehicle lockbox approved by BOP. This is important, sensible legislation, made in honor of a brave man who lost his life in the line of duty.  I urge my colleagues to support it.