Highlights from the President's FY17 Department of Justice Budget Request

Enacted FY16 funding is used for comparisons unless otherwise noted.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) would receive $29 billion in FY17 discretionary funding under the president’s budget request, a 1 percent increase.

For the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), the budget request for FY17 totals $4.2 billion (14.7 percent decreases with $154 million for Research, Evaluation, and Statistics activities. The appropriation for Research, Evaluation, and Statistics activities includes programs that provide grants, contracts and cooperative agreements for research, development and evaluation; development and dissemination of quality statistical and scientific information; and, nationwide support for law enforcement agencies. Of this amount, $48 million (33.3 percent increase) is requested for research, development and evaluation efforts under the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), which serves as the R&D agency of DOJ.  Key funding areas included in the FY17 budget proposal for NIJ:

• $5 million for development of an improved means to conduct Digital Forensics of Large-Scale Computer Systems and Network;
• $3 million for Social Science Research on Indigent Defense; and,
• $2.7 million is for Civil Legal Aid Research.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics would receive $58 million (41.5 percent increase) including $6 million in new funding to support the National Crime Victims Survey (NCVS).

The administration’s budget includes a request for $10 million to establish the National Crime Statistics Exchange (NSC-X) to collect and report nationwide incident-based crime statistics. OJP also would be appropriated $6 million (50 percent increase) for research in Forensic Sciences including $3 million that would be transferred to the National Institute of Standards and Technology for measurement science and standards research activities.

The FY17 budget request also includes $4 million in new funding for research targeted toward developing a better understanding of the domestic radicalization phenomenon and advancing evidence-based strategies for effective intervention and prevention.