These federal grant programs are set up by laws that Congress passes to try to assist States in solving certain problems. The money to fund these grant programs also comes from the federal government. There are two types of grants, formula grants and discretionary grants. Formula grants are grants that every state gets a part of the grant money according to some formula. The formula is often at least partly based on the populations of the various states.
Discretionary grants are where there is no guarantee that any state or agency gets a grant.
States or agencies apply for the discretionary grants on a competitive basis. Usually only a small number of states or agencies get discretionary grants. The Grants Management Unit manages federal grants assigned to the New Hampshire Department of Justice by the Governor of New Hampshire. Most of these are formula grants but there are some discretionary grants also. The grants all deal with various things related to criminal justice.