Skip to main content
CivicGate

HR 378
Introduced Re-checks Congress.gov for new actions and updates the bill's status, and fills in any sponsors, committees, or related bills that are missing. It does not re-pull sponsors/cosponsors/committees/related — those rarely change — and it skips all work if nothing has changed upstream, so it's cheap to click.

Thin Blue Line Act

To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide additional aggravating factors for the imposition of the death penalty based on the status of the victim.

Introduced Jan 14, 2025

Latest action (Jan 14, 2025) Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Referred to
Judiciary Committee
Policy area
Crime and Law Enforcement
Issues
Criminal Justice
Legislative subjects (8)
Crime victimsCriminal procedure and sentencingEmergency medical services and trauma careFiresFirst responders and emergency personnelHealth personnelLaw enforcement officersViolent crime

Summary
  • Adds a new aggravating factor to federal death penalty law for the killing or attempted killing of law enforcement officers, firefighters, or other first responders.
  • The aggravating factor applies when the victim was killed or targeted while engaged in the performance of their official duties.
  • The aggravating factor also applies when the victim was killed or targeted because of their status as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, first responder, or public official.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)
42 cosponsors

Actions (2)
  1. Jan 14, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. · house
  2. Jan 14, 2025 Introduced in House

More bills on these subjects (8)

Other bills that carry the most legislative subjects in common with this one (topical discovery — distinct from the procedural related bills above).

  • S 83 — Thin Blue Line Act (shares 8 subjects)
  • HR 1654 — CUTS Act (shares 7 subjects)
  • HR 6938 — Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026 (shares 6 subjects)
  • HR 1968 — Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (shares 6 subjects)
  • HR 2670 — National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (shares 6 subjects)
  • S 1071 — National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 (shares 5 subjects)
  • HR 5371 — Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026 (shares 5 subjects)
  • S 2882 — Continuing Appropriations and Extensions and Other Matters Act, 2026 (shares 5 subjects)

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • S 83 — Thin Blue Line Act · Introduced Jan 14, 2025 · Cong. 119 90%
  • HR 4846 — ROAD Act · Introduced Aug 1, 2025 · Cong. 119 68%
  • HR 3278 — Protecting Critical Infrastructure Act · Introduced May 8, 2025 · Cong. 119 67%
  • HR 373 — SAGA Act · Introduced Jan 13, 2025 · Cong. 119 66%
  • HR 4015 — Safe and Open Streets Act · Introduced Jun 13, 2025 · Cong. 119 66%
  • HR 4310 — Back the Blue Act of 2025 · Introduced Jul 10, 2025 · Cong. 119 66%

Text versions (1)
  • Introduced in House · Jan 14, 2025

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 14, 2025

Mr. Buchanan (for himself, Mr. Higgins of Louisiana, Mr. Nehls, Mr. Ezell, Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Bost, Mr. Weber of Texas, Mr. LaLota, Ms. De La Cruz, Mrs. Houchin, Mrs. Luna, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Bacon, Mr. Valadao, and Mr. Obernolte) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To amend title 18, United States Code, to provide additional aggravating factors for the imposition of the death penalty based on the status of the victim.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Thin Blue Line Act”.

SEC. 2. AGGRAVATING FACTORS FOR DEATH PENALTY.

Section 3592(c) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after paragraph (16) the following:

“(17) Killing or targeting of law enforcement officer.—

“(A) The defendant killed or attempted to kill, in the circumstance described in subparagraph (B), a person who is authorized by law—

“(i) to engage in or supervise the prevention, detention, investigation, or prosecution, or the incarceration of any person for any criminal violation of law;

“(ii) to apprehend, arrest, or prosecute an individual for any criminal violation of law; or

“(iii) to be a firefighter or other first responder.

“(B) The circumstance referred to in subparagraph

(A) is that the person was killed or targeted—

“(i) while he or she was engaged in the performance of his or her official duties;

“(ii) because of the performance of his or her official duties; or

“(iii) because of his or her status as a public official or employee.”. <all>

Comments

Comments

Loading comments…