DOJ Budget in Focus

Earmarks, Grants, and Congressional Priorities in 2026

May 2026

By Amy Solomon, MPP, and Betsy Pearl, MA, Council on Criminal Justice

Key Takeaways

After terminating U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) grants initially worth $820 million in April 2025, the Trump administration proposed a 15% cut to DOJ’s grantmaking dollars for FY 2026. Yet Congress made few major changes to these grants in the enacted federal budget, reducing funding for competitive and formula grants by roughly 1% between FY 2025 and FY 2026.
At the same time, DOJ earmark funding grew exponentially. Congress included $938.4 million in earmarks in the DOJ budget, a 57% increase over FY 2024. Despite ongoing congressional efforts to increase transparency, there is little public visibility into the process for earmarking billions of dollars in taxpayer resources across the federal budget. To illuminate the nature and scope of DOJ earmarks, CCJ has developed an interactive database of the projects funded in FY 2026.
Roughly 70% of all DOJ earmarks—or about $659 million—went to law enforcement or prosecution, with policing agencies taking home the bulk of these dollars. Other earmarks focused on juvenile justice and child protection ($72 million); corrections, community supervision, and reentry ($55 million); victims of crime ($38 million); school and campus security ($36 million); community safety and violence intervention ($34 million); substance use and mental health ($24 million); and other functions.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle brought home DOJ earmarks to their districts. Roughly 52% of DOJ earmark dollars went to projects requested by Democrats, while 44% supported projects sought by Republicans. Another 4% were jointly proposed by two members of different parties.
The President’s FY 2027 Budget Request, released in April 2026, again proposes significant cuts to DOJ grant budgets. Yet even as the administration looks ahead to 2027, DOJ has not finished awarding FY 2025 grants. Six months after the end of the fiscal year, DOJ’s primary grantmaking component had awarded roughly 42% of its $4.5 billion in FY 2025 annual appropriations—a significant departure from prior years.
In addition to FY 2026 appropriations, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act provided $6.8 billion for immigration-related work within DOJ, including a $3.5 billion fund to reimburse states and localities for costs associated with immigration enforcement. DOJ’s FY 2025 grants offer additional resources for jurisdictions working alongside federal immigration agencies. Taken together, these dollars represent a significant shift in both federal funding priorities and incentives for state and local law enforcement agencies.

Federal Funding for Safety and Justice

Each year, the White House submits the President’s Budget Request to Congress, outlining the administration’s vision for funding the federal government. The request typically kicks off a series of congressional budget hearings and deliberations on Capitol Hill, a process that ultimately culminates in the enactment of a final federal appropriations bill. Congress enacted the final FY 2026 budget for the U.S. Department of Justice in January 2026, eight months after the White House released the President’s Budget Request for the fiscal year and four months into the federal fiscal year. These delays are not an anomaly—Congress rarely meets its requirement to enact a budget before the start of the fiscal year—but nonetheless can create operational disruptions and delays for federal agencies, while putting the government at risk of shutdown.¹

DOJ Grantmaking Budget in FY 2026

The president’s FY 2026 proposal called on Congress to slash $850 million from DOJ grantmaking budgets, amounting to a 15% reduction over FY 2025 funding levels.² Congress, however, largely rejected the proposed cuts. Appropriators instead held funding levels relatively steady, reducing DOJ’s budget for competitive and formula grants by roughly 1% between FY 2025 and FY 2026.³

What Was Cut—and What Wasn't

The president’s budget proposed to eliminate multiple DOJ grant programs in their entirety. But ultimately, Congress funded many of those programs at levels comparable to those in FY 2025, including $50 million in annual appropriations for the Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative, $12 million for a capital litigation and wrongful convictions program, and $35 million across several programs focused on combatting hate crimes.⁴ Congress also rejected the administration’s efforts to reduce or eliminate certain grant programs from the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), including programs that fund Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, direct assistance for sexual assault victims, culturally specific services and outreach to underserved communities, legal and housing assistance for victims, and more.⁵ Likewise, Congress retained funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office grants to support Anti-Methamphetamine and Anti-Opioid Task Forces, both of which were recommended for elimination in the president’s budget.⁶ Funding for youth mentoring grants and school safety initiatives also remained steady, despite proposed reductions in the president’s budget.⁷

Other programs fared less well, however. For example, the President’s FY 2026 Budget Request recommended eliminating the Body-Worn Camera Partnership, a grant program established in FY 2015 to help policing agencies acquire and deploy camera technology for officers.⁸ Although Congress stopped short of defunding the program entirely, it slashed the budget by 53%, from $32 million to $15 million.⁹

Similarly, the White House proposed eliminating the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI), a bipartisan program first funded by Congress in 2010 to help states address justice system inefficiencies that drive up incarceration and correctional spending. Forty-four states have participated in JRI since its inception, adopting evidence-based reforms that yielded more than $3.2 billion in savings and averted justice system costs.¹⁰While Congress retained some funding for JRI in FY 2026, the program’s budget fell from $32 million to $19 million, a reduction of roughly 40%.¹¹

Additionally, Congress heeded a White House request to reduce funding for DOJ’s research and statistical functions, housed within the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). These offices have long faced severe resource constraints, limiting their ability to fulfill their core missions.¹² The FY 2026 budget reduces annual appropriations for these offices by 15% compared to FY 2025.¹³

At the same time, Congress rejected the White House’s proposal to increase a funding set-aside for NIJ and BJS. Historically, Congress has allowed the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) to redirect 2% of its overall discretionary funds to support research, evaluation, and statistical functions within NIJ and BJS.¹⁴ Although the President’s FY 2026 Budget Request proposed increasing the set-aside to allow 2.5% of funds to go toward NIJ and BJS, Congress kept the percentage flat at 2%. The final FY 2026 budget also retained a longstanding provision that allows OJP to use 2% of discretionary dollars to support training and technical assistance initiatives for justice system stakeholders and practitioners at the state and local levels.¹⁵

Congress also declined the administration’s request to increase funding for programs like Project Safe Neighborhoods, a DOJ initiative established in 2001 that brings together local, state, and federal law enforcement to target violent crime.¹⁶ The president’s budget requested $40 million for Project Safe Neighborhoods, more than doubling the program’s FY 2025 budget.¹⁷ Instead, Congress cut the program’s funding by about one-third, reducing its budget from $19 million to $13 million.¹⁸ The White House also proposed a substantial increase in COPS Hiring Program grants, a funding stream that helps policing agencies expand their officer workforce. Congress declined this request as well, opting to keep funding levels essentially flat, at around $157 million.¹⁹

Supplemental Funding in FY 2026

DOJ will have supplemental funding available for certain grant programs in FY 2026, in addition to the amounts made available by the FY 2026 enacted budget. Specifically, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 authorized $300 million in supplemental DOJ grant funding each year from FY 2022 to FY 2026. This includes, on an annual basis, $50 million for the Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative, $150 million for the Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program, $40 million for upgrades to criminal and mental health records, and $60 million for school violence prevention programs administered by OJP and COPS.²⁰

Additionally, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in 2025, includes $3.3 billion in supplemental appropriations for DOJ, a portion of which may be used to fund OJP and COPS grants for law enforcement and immigration enforcement activities.²¹ Notably, legislators stipulated that these funds may not be used to support community violence intervention or prevention strategies, and may only be awarded to jurisdictions in compliance with federal immigration requirements.²² To date, OJP has used these dollars to make a $10 million investment in “inkless Child ID Kits,” used to collect children’s forensic information for use in case of emergency.²³

The act also establishes the “Bridging Immigration-related Deficits Experienced Nationwide (BIDEN) Reimbursement Fund,” a $3.5 billion program that will reimburse state and local governments for immigration enforcement and detention costs incurred between January 2021 and September 2028.²⁴ Using this newly established fund, OJP recently announced plans to distribute $300 million to state and local prosecutors’ offices to cover the cost of detailing attorneys to DOJ for the purpose of investigating and prosecuting fraud and other offenses involving non-citizens.²⁵

New Additions to the DOJ Grants Budget

Congress funded several grant programs for the first time in FY 2026. Among the new additions is a $4 million carve-out within the Veterans Treatment Court program to establish a National Center for Veterans Justice, a recommendation put forth by CCJ’s Veterans Justice Commission in 2023.²⁶ Congress also appropriated $7.5 million for grants to help states and localities protect the personally identifiable information of judges and their family members. While the program was originally authorized by the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act in 2023, Congress had not previously allocated money for these grants.²⁷ Congress also set aside $5 million for new grants to combat violence and hate crimes at houses of worship and faith-based organizations.²⁸

Congressional Directives to DOJ

Beyond its funding decisions, Congress asserted itself in other ways within the provisions of the DOJ spending bill. In the explanatory statement that accompanies the federal budget, Congress specifically directs DOJ to maintain COPS and OVW as “distinct organizational grantmaking entities within the Department,” pushing back against the administration’s effort to consolidate COPS and OVW into OJP.²⁹ Appropriators also included language requiring DOJ to publish Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs) within 90 days of the enactment of the FY 2026 budget, a provision that may stem from public concerns about delays in releasing FY 2025 NOFOs and grant funding.³⁰

In other relevant action, Congress instituted new restrictions on repurposing funds intended for grantmaking. Although appropriations language typically includes limitations on transfers of funds between line items, lawmakers imposed stricter rules specifically for DOJ’s grantmaking components in FY 2026. In general, the budget permits DOJ to transfer up to 5% of a line item to other accounts within the department.³¹But appropriators mandated that no more than 3.5% of DOJ grantmaking dollars can be transferred to non-grantmaking components, emphasizing “the importance of the grant portfolio” and underscoring congressional “intent that funds appropriated for Department grant programs remain dedicated to grantmaking purposes.”³²

These new requirements come in the wake of congressional concerns about DOJ’s proposal for expending FY 2025 dollars, known as the “spend plan,” which agencies must submit to the Hill for review. DOJ’s FY 2025 spend plan proposed to transfer $163 million in grant funding to support non-grantmaking functions, including $25 million to effectuate the absorption of INTERPOL into the U.S. Marshals Service, $18 million to reimburse federal law enforcement agencies for the costs of deployment to the District of Columbia, and $7 million to pay out lump sum leave for departing employees of DOJ’s litigating components, among other purposes.³³

It’s important to note, however, that the requirements were included within the explanatory statement that lawmakers attach to the final budget bill—not within the text of the law itself. Although federal agencies have historically followed the congressional directives included in budget explanatory statements, they do not carry the same legal weight as actual legislation.

Other Federal Agencies' Budgets

Outside of DOJ, other federal agencies also administer grants focused on the cross-cutting social issues that influence public health and safety. Congress generally maintained funding levels for these programs as well, enacting an FY 2026 budget that largely resembles those of previous years.

Department of Labor

The Department of Labor, for instance, has funded reentry programs for over a decade, with the goal of improving employment outcomes for people with criminal records.³⁴ From 2023 through 2025, Congress allocated $115 million per year in funding for these grants.³⁵ Appropriators made a slight cut in 2026, reducing the budget for reentry grants to $110 million.³⁶

The department also operates YouthBuild, a workforce development program for young people facing barriers to employment, including youth who are involved in the justice system or whose parents are incarcerated.³⁷ Congress kept YouthBuild’s budget steady at $105 million in 2026, the same amount appropriated annually from 2023 through 2025.³⁸

Department of Education

Within the Department of Education, Congress maintained funding levels at $5 million for a program focused on connecting group- or gang-involved youth with postsecondary educational opportunities.³⁹ Appropriators did, however, cut the department’s budget for national school safety initiatives by approximately 12%, from $216 million in 2025 to $190 million in 2026.⁴⁰

Department of Health and Human Services

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) administers a sizeable portfolio of grants focused on addressing behavioral health issues, including funding for substance use treatment and recovery services, primary and behavioral healthcare integration, overdose prevention, crisis response, suicide prevention, children and family services, and more. Congress kept FY 2026 funding levels flat overall at around $4.1 billion for substance use treatment and $2.8 billion for mental health programs. Within these line items, Congress retained a $17.5 million carveout for school-based mental health services that seek to address the impact of community violence on children, as well $12 million for culturally relevant trauma support services for students.⁴¹

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), also housed within HHS, supports additional safety-related initiatives. Appropriators kept funding levels for the CDC’s injury prevention initiatives fixed at $761.4 million in both FY 2025 and FY 2026, providing stable support for grants and research focused on preventing injury, overdose, suicide, and violence.⁴² That includes $107.5 million for various domestic and sexual violence prevention efforts, $18.1 million for youth violence prevention, $12.5 million for firearm injury and mortality prevention research, and $24.5 million for data collection under the National Violent Death Reporting System.⁴³

Although HHS grant funding has remained relatively steady, the agency’s staffing levels have not. Since January 2025, the CDC has lost roughly one-quarter of its staff, while SAMHSA’s workforce has shrunk by about half.⁴⁴ Such precipitous personnel declines introduce operational challenges, which may delay or disrupt the administration of grants in the coming fiscal year.

The Resurgence of Earmarks

While DOJ grant budgets remained relatively stable in FY 2026, earmark spending grew exponentially. In FY 2026, DOJ’s budget included 1,086 earmarked projects worth roughly $938 million—a record high.⁴⁵ DOJ’s FY 2026 earmark totals represented a 57% increase over the previous peak level, set in FY 2024. No earmarks were funded in FY 2025, as the government operated under stopgap budget measures for the entirety of the year.

In FY 2026, Congress funded earmarks through both OJP and the COPS Office. OJP will administer roughly 57% of these earmark funds, while the COPS Office will manage the remaining 43%.⁴⁶

Figure 1. DOJ Earmark Funding, FY 2006 – FY 2026

Earmarks in Context

Earmarks, also known as “congressionally directed spending” or “community project funding,” allow lawmakers to secure federal funding for specific projects within their districts. Because these projects are written directly into the annual federal budget, earmark recipients bypass the standard competitive grants application process to receive their funding.

The use of earmarks has long been divisive. Proponents argue that they are a valuable tool for addressing local needs that might otherwise fall through the cracks of federal financial assistance programs.⁴⁷ Likewise, earmarks can create an incentive for lawmakers to come to the negotiating table and pass federal spending bills.⁴⁸ Critics, however, contend that earmarks lack sufficient oversight and transparency, and are thus susceptible to waste, fraud, and abuse or duplicative funding.⁴⁹ They also argue that in the absence of a transparent, merit-based system for assessing project proposals, well-connected or politically savvy entities may have the upper hand in securing earmark dollars.⁵⁰

Driven by these concerns, Congress adopted a moratorium on earmarks in 2011, effectively ending the practice for the next decade. But the ban was lifted in 2021, and earmarks made their return in the FY 2022 federal budget.⁵¹ Their reinstatement came with additional guardrails, designed to help protect against waste or misuse of federal funds. Congress adopted a new prohibition on earmark funding for for-profit organizations, and capped earmark spending at 1% of the federal discretionary budget. Congress also retained an existing ban on earmarks that would benefit a lawmaker’s financial interests or those of their immediate family, along with other procedural rules concerning public disclosure of earmarks.⁵²

Likewise, Congress sought to increase transparency by mandating the publication of all earmark requests on members’ websites and requiring the Government Accountability Office to audit a sample of earmarked projects.⁵³ And starting in FY 2024, the House of Representatives instituted a new requirement for members to demonstrate that projects have a clear “federal nexus,” meaning that projects must be “tied to a federal authorization law.”⁵⁴ Earmarks administered by OJP must be linked back to the authorizing legislation for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program, a flexible statute that allows for spending on a wide range of safety and justice activities, from policing and prosecution to crime prevention, corrections, substance use and mental health treatment, victim services, and related strategic planning and evaluation efforts.⁵⁵ Earmarks administered by COPS must align with a provision of the office’s authorizing statute focused on funding law enforcement equipment and technology.⁵⁶

Despite the new limits, the process by which earmarks are selected for funding remains largely opaque, with little information available on how Congress determines which funding requests ultimately make the cut.

In addition, earmarks present a specific operational challenge for DOJ’s grantmaking components, which do not receive a direct appropriation for salaries or management and administration costs. To cover all essential operational functions, OJP and the COPS Office are authorized to use a small percentage of appropriated funds from most other grant-related line items. Congress also typically permits OJP to use a small percentage of grant appropriations to fund training and technical assistance initiatives that support site-based grantees. But earmarks are excluded from both of these set-asides, limiting DOJ’s ability to provide administrative support and technical assistance to earmark recipients.

What DOJ Earmarks Fund

In an effort to illuminate the scope and nature of earmarks, this brief includes an interactive database of those DOJ projects funded in FY 2026, which CCJ coded by topic and other factors. Classification is based on project information published by members of Congress, including press releases, earmark request letters submitted to the Appropriations Committee, and other publicly available materials.

This searchable database is designed to make information about taxpayer-funded, noncompetitive earmarks more accessible to the public, but there are limitations. First, the analysis relies on information published by members of Congress, summaries that are generally limited and may omit details needed to accurately assess a project’s focus. Second, some projects are multifaceted and could be classified under multiple topic areas. For example, a reentry program for youth with behavioral health disorders could be classified as “corrections, reentry, and supervision,” “juvenile justice and child protection,” or “substance use and mental health.”

The interactive table below is searchable by topic, geographic location, requesting member of Congress, earmark recipient, and earmark funding amount. Click here to open in a new tab and see a larger version.

Table 1. Earmarked Projects in the FY 2026 DOJ Budget (Interactive)

In FY 2026, Congress used the earmark process to fund projects across a range of issue areas related to criminal justice and public safety, including:

Figure 2. DOJ Earmarks by Topic

Law Enforcement + Prosecution. Roughly 70% of all DOJ earmarks, about $659 million, went to law enforcement or prosecutorial functions, with policing agencies taking home the bulk of these dollars. These projects accounted for the vast majority of earmarks from the COPS Office, as well as more than half of earmarks from OJP. One of the most common uses for these funds was the purchase of policing equipment, such as radios, patrol cars, mobile command centers, surveillance and security technology, emergency communications systems, and other operational tools. Law enforcement agencies also received earmark funding to train officers, enhance forensic analysis capabilities, and support personnel costs.
Juvenile Justice + Child Protection. Approximately $72 million in earmarks focused on juvenile justice, child protection, and other youth-related initiatives. This included $7.8 million in COPS funding for equipment and technology associated with Internet Crimes Against Children task forces, representing about 2% of COPS earmark funds. The remaining $64.3 million came from OJP, accounting for 12% of OJP’s earmark dollars. Many of these dollars will support early prevention programming for young people, including youth engagement and mentoring programs in schools and the community. Other earmark recipients will support interventions specifically for kids involved in the juvenile justice system, while still others will focus on preventing and improving responses to child abuse, including supporting services for young victims of abuse and neglect.
Corrections, Community Supervision, Reentry. Another $55.5 million is dedicated to corrections, community supervision, and reentry-related functions. These investments make up about 1% of COPS earmark dollars, which are largely used to modernize equipment and technology in local jails, plus roughly 9% of projects funded under OJP. Many of those projects fund reentry services designed to address the needs of people returning from incarceration, which may include substance use and mental health treatment, workforce development, housing assistance, family reunification, and other wraparound supports. These earmarks also fund behavioral health services and other interventions within prisons and jails, as well as upgrades to infrastructure and security within correctional facilities.
Victims. Earmarks dedicated to serving crime victims total about $38 million, or about 7% of OJP earmarks. These dollars will fund services for victims of human trafficking, sexual assault, and domestic violence, as well as prevention initiatives focused on reducing the incidence of gender-based violence. Earmark funding will also expand outreach and supportive services for survivors of gun violence and other types of violent crime.
School Safety + Campus Security. Congress included $36 million in earmark funding for school and campus security, split roughly equally across COPS and OJP. About 72% of these projects provide funding for colleges or universities, while the remaining earmarks focus on K-12 schools. Earmarks will provide funding for facility and infrastructure upgrades, such as the installation of security cameras and outdoor lighting, and will provide policing equipment and emergency response training for campus law enforcement officers.
Community Safety + Violence Intervention. Community safety and violence intervention initiatives account for roughly 6% of OJP earmarks, amounting to a $34 million investment in total. Many of these dollars support community-based interventions that pair conflict mediation and violence interruption with wraparound services for the highest-risk individuals, with the goal of preventing imminent violence and facilitating positive behavioral change in the long term. Other projects will fund hospital-based interventions that seek to prevent retaliatory violence and increase access to supportive services for people hospitalized for violent injuries. In addition to these programs, earmarks are supporting training and professional development opportunities for violence intervention professionals, as well as research projects to assess violence reduction and community-building initiatives. Notably, community violence intervention grants were hard-hit by the DOJ grant cuts in April 2025.
Substance Use + Mental Health. DOJ’s budget earmarked roughly $24 million for projects focused primarily on issues of substance use and mental health. OJP will administer all but one of those projects, which comprise 4% of OJP’s earmark portfolio. Many of these dollars support co-responder models, mobile crisis intervention teams, pre-arrest diversion programs, and other efforts to improve responses to people in crisis. Earmark funding will also support treatment courts for people with behavioral health disorders, as well as substance use prevention programs for youth.

Small percentages of earmarks also went to projects focused on strengthening court operations and expanding access to justice, addressing missing persons and unidentified human remains cases, and righting injustices in instances of wrongful conviction.

Trends and Analysis

Analyses of DOJ earmark data for FY 2026 shed light on trends in earmark spending across multiple dimensions.

By Party and Chamber

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle brought home earmarks to their districts. Around 52% of DOJ earmark dollars went to projects requested by Democratic caucus members,⁵⁷ while 44% supported projects requested by Republicans. Another 4% were jointly proposed by two members of different parties.

About two-thirds of earmarked projects (equivalent to 70% of earmark dollars) originated in the House of Representatives, with some projects receiving additional support from the requestor’s counterpart in the Senate.⁵⁸ Around one-third of projects (equivalent to one-quarter of earmark dollars) began in the Senate, while a small number were concurrently requested by a bicameral coalition of lawmakers.⁵⁹

Approximately 99% of DOJ projects requested by House members were ultimately funded.⁶⁰ On the Senate side, however, about half of requested projects were included within the final funding bill.⁶¹ This inconsistency reflects procedural differences within the two chambers. Under the rules set by congressional leadership, senators are allowed to submit a significantly higher volume of earmark requests than their House counterparts, who were limited to 15 earmark requests across all federal agencies. By contrast, senators could submit 35 earmark requests to the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science alone, whose jurisdiction includes DOJ plus the Department of Commerce, NASA, and smaller related agencies.⁶²

By Recipient Type

Local governments—including police, sheriffs, school districts, and city and county agencies—brought home the bulk of DOJ earmark dollars. These agencies received roughly 72% of DOJ earmark funds ($676.6 million), while their counterparts in state government received about 4% ($32.6 million). Nonprofits accounted for 17% of earmark money, translating into a $166.3 million investment in these organizations. Finally, Congress awarded earmarks worth $66.8 million (7% of the total) to institutes of higher education for campus security upgrades, forensic lab enhancements, law enforcement training programs, and other functions.⁶³

Figure 3. DOJ Earmarks by Recipient Type

By Member of Congress

The DOJ budget included earmarks from 299 of the 435 members of the House of Representatives, plus three of the chamber’s six non-voting members. That means roughly one-third of House members did not bring home a DOJ earmark, generally because they did not request one.⁶⁴ On the other side of the Hill, 68 senators requested a DOJ earmark, and all received at least one.

On average, each senator brought home about $3.8 million in DOJ earmarks, while representatives averaged roughly $1.6 million.⁶⁵ These averages conceal significant variation across members, however. Republican Rep. Hal Rogers, who represents Kentucky’s fifth congressional district, and former Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican who represented the 23rd congressional district, topped the list with about $22 million each in DOJ earmarks, roughly 10 times the average.⁶⁶ Rogers is chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS), which maintains jurisdiction over DOJ’s budget. Gonzales was a member of the subcommittee.

Like their House counterparts, members of the Senate CJS Subcommittee led the chamber in DOJ earmark spending. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who hold leadership spots on the Senate CJS Subcommittee, brought home roughly $14.7 million and $17 million in DOJ earmarks, respectively. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), another subcommittee member, received $14.8 million in DOJ earmark dollars. Nonetheless, not all members of the panel ranked among the highest earmark totals. Some members of both the House and Senate CJS subcommittees received less than the chamber-wide average for DOJ earmark dollars, while other subcommittee members neither requested nor received a DOJ earmark.⁶⁷

By State

Despite variation across members of Congress, the amount of DOJ earmark funding that a state received generally corresponded with the size of its congressional delegation—or the number of congressmembers representing the state. In effect, the largest percentage of dollars accrued to populous states like California (9.2%), Texas (8.6%), Florida (6.6%), and New York (5.3%).

States and territories averaged roughly $1.8 million in earmark funding for each member of their congressional delegation.⁶⁸ Some states significantly exceeded this average. Alaska and Maine, whose moderate Republican senators sit on the appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over DOJ’s budget, brought home more than $4.5 million per member of their congressional delegation. Likewise, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Mississippi, Maryland, and Kentucky all topped $3 million per member. By contrast, Idaho, Wyoming, and Puerto Rico each received less than $700,000 per congressmember or non-voting member. One state (North Dakota) and three territories (District of Columbia, American Samoa, and Northern Marianas Islands) did not receive any DOJ earmarks.

Figure 4. DOJ Earmarks by State

Looking Ahead

Grantmaking in 2026

Delayed Grantmaking

Now that the annual federal budget is in place, DOJ should be drafting and releasing Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs) for FY 2026 funds. Yet six months after the end of the last federal fiscal year, OJP has not finished awarding grants for FY 2025. As of April 2026, OJP had awarded roughly $1.99 billion in FY 2025 grant funding; that sum represents about 44% of its total $4.56 billion in annual appropriations.⁶⁹ States and localities are still awaiting grant awards under some of OJP’s largest programs, such as the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program. That program, which provides critical support for law enforcement, crime prevention, courts, corrections, and other functions, is expected to infuse $295.6 million in FY 2025 funds into justice systems nationwide.⁷⁰

COPS and OVW have made more progress on FY 2025 grants, although both offices manage smaller grantmaking portfolios and thus have fewer awards to make each year. OVW has awarded about two-thirds of its FY 2025 appropriations,⁷¹ while COPS has finished FY 2025 grantmaking after awarding about 90% of its appropriations.⁷²

Overall, DOJ has fallen significantly behind on FY 2025 grantmaking, with delays now spilling over into the grantmaking cycle for FY 2026. By late April, grant season is typically in full swing, with a sizable share of NOFOs for the current fiscal year already released. But as of late April 2026, DOJ had released only two competitive grant opportunities for FY 2026, including a new program funded under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.⁷³

New Grant Conditions and Priorities

The FY 2025 grants awarded to date have come with a host of new conditions and requirements for funding recipients. For example, all state and local governments receiving FY 2025 COPS grants were required to comply with a federal statute prohibiting restrictions on communications with federal immigration authorities.⁷⁴ The same requirement is attached to some, but not all, OJP grants. Likewise, some OVW programs indicate that “awards may include a requirement for recipients to certify compliance with all applicable federal law,” including federal immigration provisions.⁷⁵ COPS and OJP grantees must also certify that they do not “operate any programs (including any such programs having components relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion) that violate any applicable Federal civil rights or nondiscrimination laws.”⁷⁶

Other new conditions require COPS grant recipients to certify compliance with all executive orders issued by President Trump and all applicable presidential memoranda, in addition to compliance with federal laws. COPS NOFOs also specified that no funding may be used to “promote gender ideology,” to support schools that require COVID vaccines, or to fund state and local governments or law enforcement agencies that “have failed to protect public monuments, memorials, and statues from destruction or vandalism.”⁷⁷ OVW grants similarly require applicants to certify that funds will not be used for activities that promote “gender ideology,” violations of executive orders or immigration laws, or diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs.⁷⁸

Beyond these eligibility requirements, FY 2025 funding opportunities are imbued with new policy objectives and incentives for states and localities. In particular, immigration enforcement has emerged as a prominent priority within DOJ’s FY 2025 grantmaking portfolio. Two of the department’s largest grant programs, the COPS Hiring Program and the Byrne JAG program, include new areas of funding for state and local law enforcement to partner with federal officers on immigration enforcement operations,⁷⁹ including through 287(g) agreements and task forces.⁸⁰ Other grant programs provide priority consideration for jurisdictions that collaborate with federal immigration agencies through means such as honoring immigration detainer requests and allowing federal agents access to state and local correctional facilities.⁸¹

Additionally, DOJ’s FY 2025 grants include a new emphasis on lower-level property offenses. The COPS Hiring Program introduced a new funding area in FY 2025 that focuses on the “aggressive and strict enforcement of nuisance abatement and blight,” and the Byrne JAG program offered funding for the same purpose.⁸² Both programs also emphasized the enforcement of laws associated with homelessness, encouraging applicants to collaborate with federal law enforcement officers to respond to public encampments.⁸³ Likewise, state and local governments can receive priority consideration for certain DOJ grants by certifying that they will enforce prohibitions on camping, loitering, squatting, and public substance use to the maximum extent permitted by law.⁸⁴ By contrast, another FY 2025 DOJ program invited policing agencies to propose innovative strategies for addressing homelessness by “focusing on alternatives to arrests and criminalization.”⁸⁵

FY 2027 President's Budget

In April 2026, the White House released the President’s Budget Request for FY 2027, restarting the annual appropriations process.⁸⁶ The FY 2027 proposal is largely similar to the budget put forth by the White House for FY 2026, once again recommending the elimination of funding for grants focused on community violence intervention, body worn cameras, capital litigation and wrongful convictions, hate crimes prevention, the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, and more.⁸⁷ The administration also doubled down on its proposal to consolidate DOJ’s three grantmaking components into a single office, despite congressional rebukes.⁸⁸

Though the FY 2027 budget request bears a strong resemblance to the FY 2026 proposal, it is not identical. The president’s FY 2027 budget proposes a new $100 million grant program known as the Model City Initiative, which would “provide technology, equipment, staffing, services and other operational support” to reduce violence in select jurisdictions. Other permissible uses include “providing mental health and substance use treatment services; supporting recidivism reduction activities; providing victims services; and investing in youth crime prevention and intervention services as part of a comprehensive approach to crime and violence reduction.”⁸⁹

In its pitch for the new initiative, DOJ cited the “recent surges of federal law enforcement in U.S. cities,” noting that grants would build on the “demonstrated successful outcomes [that occur] when resources are laser focused on providing cities with the tools they need to reduce violence, crime, and disorder.”⁹⁰

Conclusion

Since retaking office in 2025, President Trump has sought to pare back DOJ grant spending, starting with the termination of grants worth $820 million in April 2025. ⁹¹On the heels of these cuts, the White House submitted its FY 2026 budget request to Congress, recommending a 15% reduction in public safety and justice grant dollars. By and large, appropriators rebuked the president’s proposal for FY 2026, instead enacting a DOJ grants budget that hewed closely to the status quo of prior years. At the same time, lawmakers embraced earmarks as a tool for directing DOJ resources toward their districts. Congress earmarked a record-setting $938 million in DOJ funds—a 57% increase over the previous high, set in FY 2024—the majority of which will flow to law enforcement across the country.

The administration is nonetheless making its mark on DOJ’s grantmaking portfolio, imbuing FY 2025 programs with a new focus on immigration enforcement. These shifts, coupled with the infusion of billions of dollars in immigration-related funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signal a substantial reorientation of federal justice priorities.

The appropriations cycle is now beginning anew, as Congress debates the president’s FY 2027 budget proposal and DOJ works to distribute grant funding across the country. Together, lawmakers and DOJ officials will make funding decisions whose effects will extend well beyond the immediate budget cycle, shaping public safety and the administration of justice in the years to come.

About the Authors

Amy L. Solomon is a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice and former assistant attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice. Her expertise spans federal justice funding, criminal justice policy and administration, corrections and reentry reform, and the use of research and data to advance community safety.

Betsy Pearl is a policy consultant with the Council on Criminal Justice and previously served at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs as deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to the assistant attorney general. Her expertise includes federal criminal justice policy, justice grantmaking, and community-centered approaches to public safety and reform.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Brian Edsall, Erik Opsal, Jenifer Warren, and Rachel Yen for their support in the design and communications efforts for this report.

This report was produced with support from Fund for a Safer Future and The Just Trust, as well as the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Southern Company Foundation, and other CCJ general operating contributors.

About Justice in Perspective

Justice in Perspective is a nonpartisan series examining the complexities of federal justice funding, policy, research, and operations. It is led by CCJ Senior Fellow Amy L. Solomon, former assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs.

Suggested Citation

Solomon, A. & Pearl, B. (2026). DOJ budget in focus: Earmarks, grants, and congressional priorities in 2026. Council on Criminal Justice. https://counciloncj.org/doj-budget-in-focus-earmarks-grants-and-congressional-priorities-in-2026/

Endnotes

¹ Bahal, S., Lautz, A., Quackenbush, C., Snyderman, R., & Fano, A. (2025). What you need to know about continuing resolutions. Bipartisan Policy Center. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/explainer/what-to-know-about-continuing-resolutions/. Desilver, D. (2025). Congress has long struggled to pass spending bills on time. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/10/01/congress-has-long-struggled-to-pass-spending-bills-on-time/. Krause, H. (2018). Budget issues: Continuing Resolutions and other budget uncertainties present management challenges (GAO-18-368T). Government Accountability Office. https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-18-368t.pdf

² In FY 2025, Congress enacted a full-year continuing resolution that carries over funding levels from FY 2024, unless otherwise noted. With regards to the DOJ grantmaking budget, the FY 2025 continuing resolution removed funding for FY 2024 earmarks and for reimbursements to law enforcement agencies for costs incurred during presidential nominating conventions. The FY 2025 continuing resolution also increased the cap on Crime Victims Fund expenditures to $1.9 billion. For FY 2025 appropriations, see the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025. Pub. L. 119-4 (2025). https://www.congress.gov/119/plaws/publ4/PLAW-119publ4.pdf. For FY 2024 appropriations, see Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024. Pub. L. 118—42 (2024). https://www.congress.gov/118/plaws/publ42/PLAW-118publ42.pdf. For CCJ analysis of the FY 2026 President’s Budget Request, see Solomon, A., & Pearl, B. (2025). Unpacking the president’s 2026 budget: What the proposal signals for safety and justice. Council on Criminal Justice. https://counciloncj.org/unpacking-the-presidents-2026-budget/

³ In FY 2025, DOJ received $5.7 billion in annual appropriations for competitive and formula grants. No earmarks were included in the FY 2025 full-year continuing resolution. In FY 2026, DOJ received $5.6 billion in annual appropriations for competitive and formula grants, excluding $938 million in earmark funding. See U.S. Department of Justice. (2026). FY 2027 DOJ Grants Table (Including FY 2025 Enacted and FY 2026 Enacted). https://www.justice.gov/jmd/media/1434906/dl?inline

⁴ Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026. Pub. L. 119—74 (2026). https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/6938/text

⁵ Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026.

⁶ Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026.

⁷ Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026.

⁸ U.S. Department of Justice. (2015, May 1). Justice Department Announces $20 Million in Funding to Support Body-Worn Camera Pilot Program [Press release]. https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-20-million-funding-support-body-worn-camera-pilot-program

⁹ Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026.

¹⁰ CSG Justice Center. (2025). Justice Reinvestment Initiative. https://csgjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/JRI_Fact_Sheet_022525_FINAL.pdf

¹¹ U.S. Department of Justice, 2026.

¹² Council on Criminal Justice. (2024). Better crime data, better crime policy. https://www.counciloncj.org/crime-trends-working-group/final-report/. Friends of Justice Research & Statistics. (2024). FY 2025 Stakeholder Recommendation for the Bureau of Justice Statistics & National Institute Of Justice. Consortium of Social Science Associations. https://cossa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/FY-2025-OJP-Funding-Recommendation-One-Pager.pdf. Solomon, A., & Pearl, B. (2025). Federal data in the crosshairs: What’s at stake for public safety? Council on Criminal Justice. https://counciloncj.org/federal-data-in-the-crosshairs-whats-at-stake-for-public-safety/ . Lehman, C.F. (2023). Modernize the criminal justice system: An agenda for the new Congress. Manhattan Institute. https://manhattan.institute/article/modernize-the-criminal-justice-system-an-agenda-for-the-new-congress. Wasserstein, R. (2023, March 22). Letter to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Congressional Subcommittees on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies regarding FY2024 funding for the National Institute of Justice. American Statistical Association. https://www.amstat.org/docs/default-source/amstat-documents/pol-forensicsciencesnij_fy24.pdf. Wasserstein, R. (2024, March 8). Letter to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Congressional Subcommittees on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies regarding FY2025 funding for the National Institute of Justice and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. American Statistical Association. https://www.amstat.org/docs/default-source/amstat-documents/pol-bjs–nij-fy25.pdf.

¹³ In FY 2025, DOJ’s research, evaluation, and statistics functions were funded at $65 million, of which BJS received $35 million and NIJ received $30 million. DOJ’s enacted FY 2026 budget included $55 million in direct appropriations for research, evaluation, and statistics functions, of which $33 million went to BJS and $22 million went to NIJ. See U.S. Department of Justice, 2026.

¹⁴ The research, evaluation, and statistics set-aside has been set at 2% since FY 2012, with the exception of FY 2019, when the set-aside was 2.5%.

¹⁵ Since FY 2020 the enacted federal budget has included a 2% training and technical assistance set-aside for OJP. From FY 2010 through FY 2019, the enacted set-aside was 3%.

¹⁶ U.S. Department of Justice. (n.d.). Project Safe Neighborhoods. https://www.justice.gov/psn

¹⁷ Project Safe Neighborhoods was funded at $19 million in FY 2025. See U.S. Department of Justice, Justice Management Division. (2025). Fiscal Year 2026 Budget and Performance Summary. https://www.justice.gov/media/1403736/dl

¹⁸ U.S. Department of Justice, 2026.

¹⁹ Overall appropriations for COPS Hiring Initiatives declined by 1.2%, but the funding available for COPS Hiring grants increased by 0.6%. This is because the COPS Hiring appropriations line item includes carveouts, as directed by Congress in annual appropriations bills. The amount of funding available for COPS Hiring grants is calculated by subtracting carveouts from the topline appropriations for the program. The Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act of 2025 appropriated $256.2 million for the COPS Hiring Program and carried forward $99.5 million carve-outs from FY 2024, leaving $156.7 for COPS Hiring grants. The FY 2026 President’s Budget requested $297.4 million for the COPS Hiring Program and includes $92 million in carve-outs, leaving $205.4 million for COPS Hiring grants. In FY 2026, Congress ultimately appropriated $253.1 million for the COPS Hiring Program, with $95.5 million in carveouts, leaving $157.6 million for COPS Hiring Grants.

²⁰ Baumrucker, E.P., Dragoo, K.E., Duff, J.H., Gorman, J.H., Hahn, J., Hanson, E.J., Heisler, E.J., James, N., Kehres, K.M., Kirchhoff, S.M., Krouse, W.J., Lynch, K.E., Mitchell, A., & Tollestrup, J. (2022). Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (P.L. 117159): Section-by-section summary – Table 2: Department of Justice appropriations (R47310). Congressional Research Service. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R47310#_Toc119668424

²¹ Specifically, funding may be used to “increase funding for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program and the Office of Community Oriented Policing or initiatives associated with— (i) investigating and prosecuting violent crime; (ii) criminal enforcement initiatives; and (iii) immigration enforcement and removal efforts.” See: An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14. Pub. L. 119—21 (2025). https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1/text

²² An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14, 2025.

²³ In March 2026, OJP invited the Attorney General Alliance to apply for $10 million to purchase inkless Child ID Kits for distribution to local law enforcement agencies. See: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (2026). OJJDP FY 2026 Attorney General Alliance Child ID Kits Invitation to Apply. https://www.ojp.gov/funding/docs/OJJDP-2026-172566.pdf

²⁴An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14, 2025.

²⁵U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. (2026). OJP FY 2026 Special Attorneys Program. https://www.ojp.gov/funding/docs/bja-2026-172587.pdf

²⁶Council on Criminal Justice. (2026, January 26). Congress funds new center to identify and replicate best practices to improve outcomes for justice-involved veterans [Press release]. https://counciloncj.org/congress-funds-new-center-to-identify-and-replicate-best-practices-to-improve-outcomes-for-justice-involved-veterans/

²⁷Jackson, C. & Renberg, D. (2024). Federal judicial security update. The Federal Lawyer. https://www.federallawyermagazine.com/fedbar/library/item/fall_2024/4226446/

²⁸Committees on Appropriations. (2026). Joint Explanatory Statement, Division A – Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026. https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy26_cjs_jes.pdf

²⁹Committees on Appropriations, 2026.

³⁰Kelly, J. (2025, September 3). 2025 Federal justice grants likely to be made next fiscal year. The Imprint. https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/2025-federal-justice-grants-likely-made-next-fiscal-year/265286. Mithani, J. (2026, April 9). Federal grants can save the lives of abuse victims. $200 million is sitting unspent. The 19^th. https://19thnews.org/2026/04/doj-federal-funding-domestic-violence-sexual-assault?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=19th-republishing&utm_content=/2026/04/doj-federal-funding-domestic-violence-sexual-assault. Thrupkaew, N., Yeung, B., and Glantz, A. (2025, December 22). US Justice Department halts funding for human-trafficking survivors. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/22/justice-department-human-trafficking-survivors-support-funding

³¹Within the general provisions section of DOJ appropriations bills, Congress has generally stipulated that DOJ may transfer up to 5% of a line item to another line item, as long as no line item is increased by more than 10% by such transfers.

³²Committees on Appropriations, 2026.

³³Van Hollen, C. (2025, September 24). Letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi regarding the Department of Justice FY2025 spend plan. https://www.vanhollen.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/doj_fy25_spend_plan_response_-_senator_van_hollen.pdf

³⁴U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. (2026). Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Reentry Employment Opportunities (REO). https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ETA/reentry/pdf/REO-Fact-Sheet-2026-%28002%29.pdf

³⁵U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, 2026.

³⁶U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, 2026.

³⁷U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. (n.d.). YouthBuild. https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ETA/youth/pdfs/YB-2023-Fact-Sheet.pdf

³⁸Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. (2022). Pub. L. 117—328. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2617/text. Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024. (2024). Pub. L. 118—47. https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2882/text. Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026. (2026). Pub. L. 119—75. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/7148/text. Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025. (2025). Pub. L. 119—4. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1968/text

³⁹Committees on Appropriations. (2022). Joint Explanatory Statement, Division H – Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2023. https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Division%20H%20-%20LHHS%20Statement%20FY23.pdf. Committees on Appropriations. (2024). Joint Explanatory Statement, Division D – Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024. https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20240318/Division%20D%20LHHS.pdf. Committees on Appropriations. (2026a). Joint Explanatory Statement, Division – Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/RU/RU00/20260121/118889/BILLS-1193ih.pdf

⁴⁰Committees on Appropriations, 2024. Committees on Appropriations, 2026a.

⁴¹Committees on Appropriations, 2026a.

⁴²Committees on Appropriations, 2024. Committees on Appropriations, 2026a. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2025, September 15). About the CDC Injury Center. https://www.cdc.gov/injury/about/index.html

⁴³Committees on Appropriations, 2026a.

⁴⁴According to federal data, the CDC workforce had been reduced by 3,070 people between January 20, 2025, and February 2026, and SAMHSA’s workforce had been reduced by 409. As of September 2024, the CDC employed 12,820 employees, and SAMHSA employed 916. For workforce reductions, see: U.S. Office of Personnel Management. (2026, February). Workforce changes – Separations and accessions since January 20, 2025. https://data.opm.gov/explore-data/analytics/workforce-changes. For staffing levels as of September 2024, see: U.S. Office of Personnel Management. (2026, February). Workforce size & composition – The federal civilian workforce over time. https://data.opm.gov/explore-data/analytics/workforce-size-and-composition

⁴⁵As enacted, the Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026 includes $939,385,313 in funding for DOJ earmarks. However, appropriators revised the list earmarks shortly before the bill’s passage, removing one OJP earmark valued at $1,031,000. Congressional leadership indicated that the project was removed too late in the process to update the total dollar amounts included within the legislative text. However, DOJ will now administer earmarked projects worth $938,354,313. For additional information on the removal of the earmark, see: Tully-McManus, K., Lee Hill, M., and Wu, N. (2026, January 7). GOP earmark angst rears ahead of spending package votes. Politico. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/07/gop-earmark-angst-rears-ahead-of-spending-package-votes-00714135. Kochi, S. (2026, January 7). House advances minibus package after Johnson wins over holdouts. The Hill. https://thehill.com/homenews/5677959-house-advances-minibus-funding/

⁴⁶As enacted, the Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026 includes $537,978,926 in earmarks under the OJP account and $401,406,387 in earmarks under the COPS account. However, after one OJP earmark was removed, OJP will administer projects worth $536,947,926.

⁴⁷Ciscomani, J. Bang for the buck. (2025). Office of U.S. Representative Juan Ciscomani. https://ciscomani.house.gov/media/op-eds/bang-buck. Peter G. Peterson Foundation. (n.d.). What are earmarks and what purpose do they serve? https://www.pgpf.org/article/what-are-earmarks-and-what-purpose-do-they-serve-in-the-federal-budget

⁴⁸National Network for Youth. (2021). Fact sheet: Congressionally directed spending – The return of earmarks to the Senate. https://nn4youth.org/wp-content/uploads/05.2021_Senate-Earmarks.pdf. The Congressional Institute. (2016). The case for earmarks: Were they really that bad? https://www.congressionalinstitute.org/2016/09/15/the-case-for-earmarks-were-they-really-that-bad/

⁴⁹Boccia, R. (2022). It’s time for Congress to ban earmarks. Cato Institute. https://www.cato.org/commentary/its-time-congress-ban-earmarks. Boccia, R. & Barry, T. (2018). Seven reasons earmarks are a very bad idea. The Heritage Foundation. https://www.heritage.org/budget-and-spending/commentary/7-reasons-earmarks-are-very-bad-idea. McClintock, T. (2021). Earmarks: A monumentally bad idea. Office of U.S. Representative Tom McClintock. https://mcclintock.house.gov/newsroom/columns/earmarks-a-monumentally-bad-idea. Porter, K. (2021, March 12). My fellow Democrats, let earmarks stay in the dustbin of history. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/opinion/my-fellow-democrats-let-earmarks-stay-in-the-dustbin-of-history-11615576424

⁵⁰Huq, T. I., Hassan, M. Kabir., & Houston, R. (2022). The effects of firm political contributions on earmarks and subsequent firm performance. Research in International Business and Finance, 62, 101706. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2022.101706. Rocca, M. S., & Gordon, S. B. (2013). Earmarks as a means and an end: The link between earmarks and campaign contributions in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Journal of Politics, 75(1), 241–253. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022381612000990

⁵¹Shutt, J. (2021, February 26). House appropriators officially bring back earmarks, ending ban. Roll Call. https://rollcall.com/2021/02/26/house-appropriators-to-cap-earmarks-at-1-percent-of-topline/

⁵²U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations. (2021, April 26). Leahy announces restoration of the power of the purse: Reforms for a return to congressionally directed spending in fiscal year 2022 [Press release]. https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/majority/-leahy-announces-restoration-of-the-power-of-the-purse-reforms-for-a-return-to-congressionally-directed-spending-in-fiscal-year-2022

⁵³U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, 2021.

⁵⁴U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations. (2023). House Appropriations Committee guidance for community project funding. https://appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-appropriations.house.gov/files/FY24%20Comunity%20Project%20Funding%20Guidance.pdf

⁵⁵U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies. (2025). Fiscal Year 2026 Member Community Project Funding Request Guide. https://appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-appropriations.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/fy26-cjs-guidance.pdf

⁵⁶U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, 2025.

⁵⁷Includes Independents who caucus with Democrats.

⁵⁸696 earmarked projects valued at $649.5 billion originated in the House, about 13% of which received additional support from members of the Senate.

⁵⁹347 earmarked projects valued at $247.6 billion originated in the Senate, and 43 projects valued at $41.7 billion originated jointly in the House and the Senate.

⁶⁰Finding based on original CCJ analysis of funded earmarks compared to earmarks requested by members of the House of Representatives. For funded earmarks, see: U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations. (2026). Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies [Community project funding/congressionally directed spending]. https://appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-appropriations.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/fy26-cjs-1.7.pdf. For full list of earmarks requested by members of the House of Representatives, see: U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations. (n.d.). Projects requested in the fiscal year 2026 bills: Consolidated table [Dataset]. https://appropriations.house.gov/fy26-member-requests/fy26-community-project-funding.

⁶¹Findings based on original CCJ analysis of funded earmarks , compared to earmarks requested by members of the Senate. For funded earmarks, see: U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations. (2026). Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies [Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending]. https://appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-appropriations.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/fy26-cjs-1.7.pdf. For full list of earmarks requested by members of the Senate, see: U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations. (n.d.). Congressionally directed spending requests for FY2026. https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/congressionally-directed-spending-requests-fy2026

⁶²U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations. (2025). FY26 guidance overview. https://appropriations.house.gov/fy26-guidance-overview. U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations. (2025). General guidance on fiscal year 2026 appropriations requests. https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy2026_appropriations_requests_general_guidance.pdf

⁶³Findings based on original CCJ analysis of earmarked projects. CCJ coded each listed earmark recipient by type of organization. For the full dataset, see Table 1.

⁶⁴Three members of the House of Representatives submitted DOJ earmark requests but did not receive any: Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX-28), Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL-20), and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-5).

⁶⁵Average includes members of Congress who did not receive DOJ earmarks in FY 2026. When excluding members who did not receive DOJ earmarks, senators brought home $5.6 million on average and House members brought home $2.3 million. CCJ’s analysis is based on the requestor(s) associated with each project, as listed in the final published list of CJS earmarks. Analyses of House members and senators were conducted separately. In instances where two members of the same chamber (e.g., two senators or two representatives) were listed as joint requestors for the same project, CCJ assigned half of the total value of the project to each requesting member to compute the average amount accrued to individual members. For example, Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chris Murphy (D-CT) jointly requested and received 14 DOJ earmarks valued at $8,087,000; for the purposes of this analysis, each senator is considered to have accrued $4,043,500.

⁶⁶Rep. Gonzales resigned from the House of Representatives in April 2026.

⁶⁷For example, Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Representatives Ben Cline (R-VA-6) and Andrew Clyde (R-GA-9) sit on the CJS subcommittees and neither requested nor received any DOJ earmarks. Senators Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Representatives Mark Alford (R-MO-4), Madeleine Dean (D-PA-4), John Carter (R-TX-31), Joe Morelle (D-NY-25), and Dale Strong (R-AL-5) all sit on the CJS subcommittees and brought home earmarks valued at less than half of the average amount per member of their chamber.

⁶⁸Average includes states and territories that did not receive DOJ earmarks in FY 2026. When excluding those that did not receive DOJ earmarks, states and territories averaged $1.9 million.

⁶⁹FY 2025 award-making data current as of April 21, 2026. In any given year, DOJ’s grantmaking offices reserve a percentage of appropriations for management and administration costs, as Congress does not allocate funding specifically for these functions. After accounting for salaries, contracts, and other operational expenses, OJP’s grant awards generally make up between 75% and 90% of its annual appropriations. Estimates are based on the total amount of funding awarded under NOFOs of a given fiscal year, as compared to the total funding included in annual appropriations bills for that fiscal year. Analysis is limited to FY 2021 through FY 2024 based on availability of data; OJP’s interactive funding database does not include awards made prior to FY 2021. For estimates of funding awarded from FY 2021 onwards, including FY 2025, see Office of Justice Programs. OJP awards since FY2021 by solicitation [Data set]. https://charts.ojp.usdoj.gov/t/public/views/OJPAwardsDashboardallFiscalYears/AwardsByNOFO?%3Aembed=y&%3Aiid=2&%3AisGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y. For appropriations totals for FY 2021, see: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. (2021). FY 2022 Budget Request Overview.https://www.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh241/files/media/document/dojojpfy2022budget.pdf. For appropriations totals for FY 2022 and FY 2023, see: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. (2023). FY 2024 Budget Request Overview. https://www.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh241/files/media/document/fy24budgetoverview.pdf. For appropriations totals for FY 2024 and FY2025, see: U.S. Department of Justice, Justice Management Division, 2025.

⁷⁰U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance. (2026). Fiscal year (FY) 2025 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program – Allocations by state. https://bja.ojp.gov/funding/jag-state-local-allocations.pdf

⁷¹As of April 2026, OVW has publicly announced awards worth around $472 million under FY 2025 NOFOs. In total, OVW received $713 million in FY 2025 annual appropriations. For OVW awards under FY 2025 NOFOs, see: U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women. (2026, February 19). FY 2025 OVW grant awards by program. https://www.justice.gov/ovw/awards/fy-2025-ovw-grant-awards-program. U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women. (2026a, February 19). FY 2026 OVW grant awards by program. https://www.justice.gov/ovw/awards/fy-2026-ovw-grant-awards-program. For FY 2025 appropriations, see: U.S. Department of Justice, Justice Management Division, 2025.

⁷²As of April 2026, COPS has publicly announced awards worth around $382 million under FY 2025 NOFOs, and published a notice on their website indicating that all FY 2025 awards have been made. In total, COPS received $417 million in FY 2025 annual appropriations. For FY 2025 awards, see: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. (n.d.). Grants. https://cops.usdoj.gov/grants. For FY 2025 appropriations, see: U.S. Department of Justice, Justice Management Division, 2025.

⁷³As of April 2026, OJP had released one competitive grant NOFO, the FY 2026 Special Attorneys Program, plus three invitation-only funding opportunities. OVW also released one competitive grant NOFO, the FY 2026 Formula Programs Training and Technical Assistance Initiative. See: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, 2026. U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women. (2026). OVW Fiscal Year 2026 Formula Programs Training and Technical Assistance Initiative – Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). https://www.justice.gov/ovw/media/1424346/dl?inline

⁷⁴The Award Owner’s Manual for each FY 2025 COPS grant program states, “All FY 2025 State or local government recipients or subrecipients of COPS Office funding must comply with 8 U.S.C. 1373 throughout the life of the award.” See, for example: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. (2025). 2025 COPS Hiring Program (CHP) Award Owner’s Manual. https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/2025AwardDocs/chp/aom.pdf

⁷⁵See, for example: U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women. (2025). OVW Fiscal Year 2025 Local Law Enforcement Grants for Enforcement of Cybercrimes Program. https://www.justice.gov/ovw/media/1400626/dl?inline

⁷⁶U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. (2025, May 12). “General Conditions” for OJP awards in FY 2025. https://www.ojp.gov/funding/explore/legaloverview2025/mandatorytermsconditions#federal-civil-rights-and-nondiscrimination-laws-certification

⁷⁷See, for example: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. (2025a). FY 25 Community Policing Development Microgrants. https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/2025ProgramDocs/cpdmicrogrants/nofo.pdf

⁷⁸See, for example: U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women. (2025). OVW Fiscal Year 2025 Grants to Indian Tribal Governments Program. https://www.justice.gov/ovw/media/1399161/dl?inline

⁷⁹U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. (2025b). FY25 COPS Hiring Program. https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/2025ProgramDocs/chp/nofo.pdf. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance. (2026a). BJA FY25 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program – Local Formula. https://www.ojp.gov/funding/docs/bja-2025-172542.pdf. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance. (2026b). BJA FY25 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program – State Formula. https://www.ojp.gov/funding/docs/bja-2025-172541.pdf

⁸⁰Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enter into agreements with states and localities to delegate certain immigration enforcement authorities to state and local officers. As of April 23, 2026, ICE has 1,734 agreements in place with states and localities under 287(g), a 12-fold increase since January 2025. Starting October 1, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security will reimburse states and localities for the salaries and benefits of 287(g) officers and will offer performance-based incentive payments to state and localities, “based on the successful location of illegal aliens provided by ICE and overall assistance to further ICE’s mission to Defend the Homeland.” These funds were authorized by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025. For information on section 287(g) and data on signed agreements, see: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (2026, April 23). Delegation of Immigration Authority Section 287(g) Immigration and Nationality Act. https://www.ice.gov/identify-and-arrest/287g. For information on reimbursement and funding, see: U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2025, September 2). DHS announces new reimbursement opportunities for state and local law enforcement partnering with ICE to arrest the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens [Press release]. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/09/02/dhs-announces-new-reimbursement-opportunities-state-and-local-law-enforcement

⁸¹See, for example: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance. (2026c). BJA FY25 Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use, Site Based Program. https://www.ojp.gov/funding/docs/bja-2025-172485.pdf. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. (2026a) OJP Agency Funding Priorities. https://www.ojp.gov/funding/funding-priority-inventories-application-resources.pdf.

⁸²U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2025b. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2026a. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2026b.

⁸³U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2025b. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2026a. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance, 2026b.

⁸⁴See, for example: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, 2026a. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance. (2026d). BJA FY25 Public Safety and Mental Health Initiative. https://www.ojp.gov/funding/docs/bja-2025-172486.pdf

⁸⁵U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. (2025c). FY25 Community Policing Development Microgrants. https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/2025ProgramDocs/cpdmicrogrants/nofo.pdf

⁸⁶Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget. (2026). Budget of the U.S. Government, fiscal year 2027. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/budget_fy2027.pdf

⁸⁷U.S. Department of Justice. (2026a). FY 2027 Performance Budget Congressional Submission: Office of Justice Programs. https://www.justice.gov/jmd/media/1434636/dl?inline

⁸⁸U.S. Department of Justice. (2026b). Bureau of Justice Grants (BJG). https://www.justice.gov/jmd/media/1434566/dl?inline

⁸⁹U.S. Department of Justice, 2026a.

⁹⁰U.S. Department of Justice, 2026a.

⁹¹Solomon, A., & Pearl, B. (2025). DOJ funding update: A deeper look at the cuts. Council on Criminal Justice. https://counciloncj.org/doj-funding-update-a-deeper-look-at-the-cuts/

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