On Monday, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Catherine Cortez Mastro (D-NV) have introduced the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2023. A summary of the bill can be viewed here. WR strongly supports the bill, as does the NRF, which has worked closely with the Senators on the reintroduction of a similar bill last session.
The bill does the following:
- Seeks to make amendments to Title 18 of the U.S. Code, including adding a dollar value threshold of $5,000 or more in a 12-month period.
- Establishes a Center to Combat Organized Retail Crime to be led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The Center is tasked with coordinating federal-level ORC investigations and intelligence sharing, and supporting the retail industry and state and local law enforcement in their ORC-related investigative activities.
- Requires the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice to review their existing training and technical assistance programs and find ways to increase their prioritization of ORC within these programs.
