Washington, DC – Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) and Republican Rep. Peter King (NY-02) have introduced the Slain Officer Family Support Act of 2015, a piece of legislation that would extend the tax deadline so that individuals making charitable donations for the families of assassinated New York Police Department (NYPD) Detectives Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos can apply such tax deductions to their 2014 tax return. The legislation would be effective retroactively from January 1, 2015.

“Detectives Ramos and Liu were American heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in their commitment to keep us safe. The pain of losing a loved one is more than enough to bear; their families should not have to worry about how they will put food on the table in the aftermath of such an unspeakable tragedy,” said Rep. Jeffries.

On December 21, 2014, while sitting in their marked patrol car, NYPD Detectives Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were approached from behind and, with no warning, shot at point-blank range. Liu and Ramos, both Brooklyn residents, had been assigned to patrol the Tompkins Public Housing Development in Bedford-Stuyvesant as a part of a “critical-response detail” deployed to the area due to an uptick in violence there over the past year. Detective Ramos, 40, joined the NYPD two years ago and is survived by a wife and two sons, ages 13 and 19. Detective Liu, 32, is survived by his new wife of just one month and his immigrant parents. Congress enacted similar laws in both 2014 (Public Law 113-92) and 2010 (Public Law 111-126) to encourage donations to the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda and to Haiti after they suffered from a major earthquake.

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Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is a member of the House Judiciary Committee. He represents the 8th Congressional district, including Brooklyn in the United States Congress.