FY2017 Appropriations for the Department of Justice Grant Programs
Released: 2017-05-30T00:00:00

E ach year Congress provides funding for a variety of grant programs through the Department of Justice (DOJ). These programs provide support to state, local, and tribal governments and nonprofit organizations for a variety of criminal justice-related purposes, such as combatting violence against women, reducing backlogs of DNA evidence, supporting community policing, assisting crime victims, promoting prisoner reentry, and improving the functioning of the juvenile justice system. Congress funds these programs through five accounts in the annual Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations act:

Violence Against Women Programs; Research, Evaluation, and Statistics; State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance; Juvenile Justice Programs; and Community Oriented Policing Services.

This report provides an overview of congressional actions to fund DOJ's grant programs through these accounts for FY2017. The report also provides information on FY2016 appropriations for DOJ's grant programs.

Office on Violence Against Women (OVW)

The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) was established to administer programs created under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994. These programs provide financial and technical assistance to communities around the country to facilitate the creation of programs, policies, and practices designed to improve criminal justice responses related to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

The Obama Administration's FY2017 request for OVW was $489 million, 1.9% more than the FY2016 appropriation of $480 million. The Obama Administration also proposed transferring $326 million from the Crime Victims Fund to the OVW. The Obama Administration's FY2017 request was mostly in line with the FY2016 appropriation, but it requested increases for grants to encourage arrests in domestic violence cases and enforce protection orders (+$11 million), civil legal assistance (+$8 million), grants to combat violence on college campuses (+$6 million), grants to combat abuse against the elderly (+$1 million), and grants to strengthen tribal justice systems' response to domestic violence on tribal lands (+$3 million). Additionally, the Obama Administration proposed funding two new initiatives through set-asides from other grant programs: reducing firearm lethality in domestic violence cases and enhancing colleges' and universities' responses to instances of campus sexual assault. Finally, the Obama Administration's request proposed reducing funding for the Service-Training-Officers-Prosecutors (STOP) Formula Grant program by $15 million.

In the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017 ( P.L. 115-31 ), Congress adopted the Obama Administration's proposal to supplement direct appropriations for OVW with a $326 million transfer from the Crime Victims Fund. However, Congress largely declined to support the rest of the Obama Administration's proposals. The act increased funding for grants to encourage arrests in domestic violence cases and enforce protection orders and grants to strengthen tribal justice systems' response to domestic violence on tribal lands, but not at the level proposed by the Obama Administration. Congress also declined to support the Obama Administration's proposal to reduce funding for STOP grants. For FY2017, Congress funded STOP grants at an amount equal to the FY2016 appropriation.

Office of Justice Programs (OJP)

The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) manages and coordinates the National Institute of Justice; Bureau of Justice Statistics; Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; Office of Victims of Crimes; Bureau of Justice Assistance; Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking; and related grant programs.

Research, Evaluation, and Statistics

The Research, Evaluation, and Statistics account (formerly the Justice Assistance account) funds the operations of the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Institute of Justice, among other things.

The Obama Administration requested $154 million for this account for FY2017, a 32.8% increase over the FY2016 appropriation of $116 million. It requested increases in funding for the Bureau of Justice Statistics (+$17 million) and the National Institute of Justice (+$12 million) along with a $2 million increase for the forensic sciences improvement program. The Administration requested funding for two new initiatives: a clearinghouse for information on evidence-based programs ($3 million) and an incident-based crime statistics program ($10 million). The Administration also proposed funding for research on domestic radicalization under this account rather than the State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance account.

Congress provided $89 million for the Research, Evaluation, and Statistics account for FY2017. The decrease in funding for FY2017 (-23.3%) is largely the result of Congress moving funding for the Regional Information Sharing System to the Community Oriented Policing Services account.

State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance

The State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance account includes funding for a variety of grant programs to improve the functioning of state, local, and tribal criminal justice systems. Some examples of programs that have traditionally been funded under this account include the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program, the Drug Courts program, the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), and DNA backlog reduction grant programs.

The Obama Administration's FY2017 request for the State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance account was $1.098 billion, which was 22.1% less than the FY2016 appropriation of $1.409 billion. The Administration proposed eliminating funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP, -$210 million); the Paul Coverdell Forensic Sciences Improvement Program (-$14 million); grants to assist trafficking victims (-$45 million); the John R. Justice program, which helps with student loan forgiveness for attorneys in public service (-$2 million); and the tribal assistance program (-$30 million). However, it proposed to fund grants to assist trafficking victims with deposits to the Crime Victims Fund. The Obama Administration also proposed to use 7% of the funding under the State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance, Juvenile Justice Programs, and Research, Evaluation, and Statistics accounts to support tribal justice programs. In addition, it proposed reducing funding for the JAG program (-$93 million, though this is largely the result of eliminating the set-aside for security at the Presidential Nominating Conventions), the National Criminal History Improvement program (-$23 million), and DNA backlog reduction initiatives (-$20 million).

While the Obama Administration proposed eliminating or reducing funding for several programs under the State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance account, it has also proposed increasing funding for reentry initiatives authorized under the Second Chance Act (+$32 million), programs for children exposed to violence (+$15 million), grants for residential substance abuse treatment (+$2 million), and programs to assist people with mental illness in the criminal justice system (+$4 million).

In addition, the Obama Administration requested funding for several new programs under the State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance account, including

$10 million for the Byrne Incentive Grant program, which would have made supplemental grants to JAG program grantees who choose to use a portion of their JAG funding to support programs or initiatives that are evidence-based, or are promising and will be coupled with rigorous evaluation to determine their effectiveness; $15 million for the Byrne Competitive Grant program to implement evidence-based and data-driven strategies on issues of national significance; $20 million for grants and technical assistance to state, local, and tribal courts and juvenile and criminal justice agencies to support efforts to improve the perception of fairness in the juvenile and criminal justice systems and to build community trust; $5 million for the Violence Reduction Network, which would allow cities to develop data-driven, evidence-based strategies to reduce violence by consulting directly with and receiving coordinated training and technical assistance from multiple DOJ components; and $6 million for grants to counter violent extremism.

Congress reduced funding for the State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance account by 9.1%, or $128 million, for FY2017. Some of the reduction is due to Congress choosing to fund several programs—Project Safe Neighborhoods, the John R. Justice program, grants for capital litigation improvement and wrongful conviction review, and programs under the Prison Rape Elimination Act—as set-asides from the JAG program instead of funding them as individual line items under the State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance account. Congress also reduced top-line funding for JAG by $73 million. After accounting for set-asides, available funding for the JAG program decreased from $347 million for FY2016 to $335 million for FY2017.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act eliminates funding for tribal assistance programs (-$30 million). However, Congress authorized DOJ to use up to 7% of the funding available under the State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance, Juvenile Justice Programs, and Community Oriented Policing Services account, with a few exceptions, for tribal justice assistance programs.

Congress also provided $103 million under the State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance account for an opioid initiative. However, most of the funding for this initiative is not new. Rather, funding for the initiative comes from the following programs: Drug Courts ($43 million), Veterans Treatment Courts ($7 million), Residential Substance Abuse Treatment ($14 million), Prescription Drug Monitoring ($14 million), and programs to address individuals with mental illness in the criminal justice system ($12 million). All of these programs were funded through the State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance account in FY2016. In addition, Congress provided $13 million under the opioids initiative for programs authorized by the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 ( P.L. 114-198 ). The act directs DOJ to use funding for the programs under the opioid initiative to "address opioid abuse reduction consistent with underlying program authorities."

Congress declined to fund any of the new programs proposed by the Obama Administration.

Juvenile Justice Programs

The Juvenile Justice Programs account includes funding for grant programs to reduce juvenile delinquency and help state, local, and tribal governments improve the functioning of their juvenile justice systems.

For FY2017, the Obama Administration requested $334 million for the Juvenile Justice Programs account, a 23.8% increase over the FY2016 appropriation of $270 million. The Administration's FY2017 request included proposals to increase funding for the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) Part B formula grants program (+$17 million), Title V grants (+$24.5 million), and the Community-based Violence Prevention Initiative (+$10 million). The Obama Administration also requested that funding be restored to the Juvenile Accountability Block Grants ($30 million), which were eliminated in FY2014. In addition, the Administration requested $20 million for a Smart on Juvenile Justice Initiative, which would have provided supplemental incentive grant awards to foster better outcomes for system-involved youth. Finally, the Obama Administration proposed to reduce funding for youth mentoring grants (-$32 million), investigation and prosecution of child abuse programs (-$9 million), and the missing and exploited children program (-$5 million).

Congress appropriated $247 million for the Juvenile Justice Programs account for FY2017, an 8.6% reduction compared to the FY2016 appropriation. Congress reduced funding for some programs under the Juvenile Justice Programs account: JJDPA Part B state formula grants (-$3 million), youth mentoring grants (-$10 million), and Title V grants (-$3 million). Congress also chose to fund the Community-based Violence Prevention Initiative, which was a separate line item in the Juvenile Justice Program account in FY2016, as a set-aside from the Title V grant program.

Congress declined to fund any of the new programs proposed by the Obama Administration.

Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)

The Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office awards grants to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies throughout the United States so they can hire new officers, train them in community policing, purchase and deploy new crime-fighting technologies, and develop and test new and innovative policing strategies.

The Obama Administration's FY2017 request for COPS was $74 million more than the FY2016 appropriation of $212 million. The Obama Administration requested a $42 million increase in funding for the COPS hiring program. The Administration's request would also have established the Tribal Resources Grant program and training and technical assistance on COPS's collaborative reform model as separate line items in the account rather than as set-asides from the funding for the hiring program.

Congress appropriated $222 million for the COPS account for FY2017, a 4.5% increase in funding compared to the FY2016 appropriation. Congress increased funding for the COPS hiring program from $187 million to $195 million, but after set-asides are accounted for, actual funding for the hiring program remained unchanged ($137 million). Congress also provided a $3 million increase in funding for the Anti-heroin Task Forces program.

For FY2017, Congress provided funding for the Regional Information Sharing System (RISS) under the COPS account. P.L. 115-31 requires this funding to be transferred to OJP.

Congress also set-aside $8 million from the COPS hiring program for the POLICE Act of 2016 ( P.L. 114-199 ). The act allows COPS grants to be used for active shooter training.

21st Century Justice Initiative

As a part of its FY2017 budget request for DOJ, the Administration requested $500 million for the 21 st Century Justice Initiative. This proposed initiative would have been a new mandatory program that would have invested $5 billion—$500 million a year for 10 years—in criminal justice reform efforts. The initiative would have used federal funding to promote innovative approaches to reducing both crime and unnecessary incarceration. The program would have focused on achieving three objectives: reducing crime, reversing practices that have led to unnecessarily long sentences and unnecessary incarceration, and building community trust. States would have been able to use this funding to focus on one or more of the following objectives for their adult and juvenile systems: (1) examining and changing state laws and policies that contribute to unnecessarily long sentences and unnecessary incarceration, without sacrificing public safety; (2) promoting critical advancements in community-oriented policing; and (3) providing comprehensive diversion and reentry services. In addition, this initiative would have dedicated 10% of the funding for reform efforts in the federal criminal justice system, including improving skills, education, mental health, addiction, and other recidivism-reduction programming in the Bureau of Prisons.

Congress declined to provide funding for this program.