White House FY 22 Budget Request
Good morning!
I wanted to share with you, a link to a narrative summary of the White House’s FY 22 Budget Request.
Of great interest, as you will see below, is that this FY 22 Budget Request proposes to nearly double funding for Violence Against Women Act programs to $1 billion! (I have highlighted this section below.)
There are still some uncertainties of course. Namely, whether or not this budget request is approved as submitted but also, if approved, how much of the increase would support an increase in STOP VAWA funding specifically.
Special thanks to NCJA for sharing the following information:
White House Releases Summary of FY22 Budget Request
On Friday, the Biden Administration released a narrative summary of its FY22 budget request to Congress. As is often the case in the first year of a new Administration, the full budget request to Congress will not be finalized and transmitted until mid-spring. However, since Congress needs certain information to begin its annual budget and appropriations cycle this “top line narrative” fulfills that need. The detailed program-by-program proposals and fiscal analysis will follow “in the months ahead.”
The Department of Justice section of the document focuses on several priorities, including investments in community policing, police reform and other efforts to address inequities in the justice system. According to the narrative, the President’s budget will request $1.2 billion, an increase of $304 million, to support a range of programs supporting police-community relationships, including the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) hiring program and programs that support community-oriented policing policies and practices, such as racial sensitivity and implicit bias training and additional support for hate crime training and police innovation programs.
Further, the budget will request $1.5 billion, an increase of $554 million, for grants that support efforts to reform state and local criminal justice systems, including funding to support juvenile justice programs, drug courts and alternative court programs, public defenders and Second Chance Act programs. The narrative also notes that DOJ will propose administrative action to apply new priority preferences and grant conditions to ensure resources are used to further reform efforts, including requirements that those funds be used to help law enforcement agencies mirror the racial diversity of the communities they serve.
The narrative also focuses on investment in efforts to end gender-based violence including almost doubling funding for Violence Against Women Act programs to $1 billion from the current level of $487 million, as well as an increase in funds to address the rape kit backlog, and funding for new programs to expand restorative justice efforts, protect transgender survivors, and support women at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving institutions and tribal colleges.
Other DOJ priority areas raised in the narrative include:
· combatting gun violence including $401 million in state and local grants, an increase of $162 million or 68 percent above the 2021, level to improve background check systems;
· $100 million to support coordinated violence reduction programs through a new Community Violence Intervention initiative (see article below);
· restoring a stronger role for DOJ in federal civil rights enforcement;
· continued reform of the federal criminal justice system and First Step Act implementation;
· supporting environmental justice policies;
· support for reducing the immigration court backlog; and
· addressing the rising threat of domestic terrorism while respecting civil rights and civil liberties.
Take care,
Barry