President Biden will propose $32 billion in new spending to fight crime, putting a price tag on his State of the Union call to fund police, Axios reports. Biden wants to show that he is addressing rising crime, which threatens Democrats' fortunes in the midterm elections.
The budget proposal being made Monday will include $20.6 billion for the year starting October 1 for Department of Justice discretionary spending on federal law enforcement, crime prevention and intervention. That's $2 billion more than the $18.6 billion for the current fiscal year.
The proposal would mandate $30 billion in new spending over the next decade on programs to expand law enforcement and crime prevention.
Expanded discretionary spending would increase resources for federal prosecutors and give additional resources to state and local law enforcement to put more police on the beat.
The proposal, which must be enacted by Congress, would more than double the funding for community policing through the COPS Hiring Program.
It also would add $500 million for community violence interventions — a tenfold increase.
Biden has been looking for ways to distance himself from progressives over how to fight crime, and to convince swing voters he understands their concerns about feeling unsafe.
In his State of the Union address this month, Biden said, "We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police. It's to fund the police. Fund them. Fund them. Fund them with resources and training."
Biden is expected to include a placeholder for a revised version of his Build Back Better agenda without specifics for how much he plans to spend.
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