Funding the Byrne JAG Program

Funding for the Byrne JAG Program is authorized at $1.1 billion annually. In practice, however, annual funding has not reached that level in over two decades. At its peak in FY02, Congress appropriated $830 million. In subsequent years, funding held steady at about $500 million. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in FY09 provided a one-time boost of $2 billion. Since FY10, funding has dropped by about one-third. The Byrne JAG Program was funded at $346 million FY24 after carve-outs.

Byrne JAG Funding in More Detail

In FY02 and FY03, Byrne and LLEBG funding together totaled $900 million. In FY05, the first year of the combined Byrne JAG program, funding dropped to $536 million (after subtracting unrelated carve-outs). In FY06, funding dipped further to $322 million and then rose again to $520 million in FY07. In FY08, although both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees had recommended significantly increased funding in their committee-passed bills, funding in the final conference report was cut by two-thirds to $170 million.

In the aftermath of the cut in FY08, it became clear that Members of Congress and the wider stakeholder were not aware of the breadth or importance of Byrne JAG’s impact on state and local criminal justice systems. NCJA helped build a large coalition of stakeholder organizations that worked for two years to educate Members of Congress and the stakeholder community about Byrne JAG’s role in testing and replicating evidence-based and evidence-generating programs.

Congress restored funding in the regular FY09 appropriations bill to $512 million and provided one-time funding of $2 billion in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA or Recovery Act). Funding remained level at $511 million in FY10 but then dropped again in FY11, FY12 and FY13 as Congress sought to reduce the federal deficit through cuts in non-defense discretionary spending, referred to as the sequester. Byrne JAG dropped to $425 million in FY11 and $352 million in FY12 and has stayed at roughly that level, with a few exceptions, to today.

Tracking Funding for Justice Assistance Grants Programs

NCJA's Justice Assistance Table* tracks funding for the state and local justice assistance grant programs. The table is updated throughout the annual federal funding cycle, beginning with the release of the President’s budget request in late January or early February, action by the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees and full committees, floor debate and conference committee.

*The Justice Assistance Table is available only to NCJA members.

Reauthorizing the Byrne JAG Program

The federal budget process occurs in two stages: appropriations, which set overall spending limits by agency or program, and authorizations, which direct how federal funds should (or should not) be used. Appropriation and authorization provisions are typically made for single fiscal years. A reauthorization bill renews the authorizations of an expiring law.

This is the case with the Byrne JAG Program (and most other justice assistance grant programs). Byrne JAG expired at the end of the 112th Congress. Many of the other grant programs also have been expired for significant periods of time. In nearly every case, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees continue to fund expired programs in the annual appropriations bills, which act as one-year authorization bills.

The House passed a Byrne JAG reauthorization bill in the 112th Congress but it never advanced in the Senate. The bill, H.R. 6062, by Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA), would have extended the Byrne JAG program for five years, through FY17, at a maximum authorized level of $800 million annually. Although this would have been a drop from the current authorization of $1.095 billion, it was significantly above the most recent annual appropriated level of $347 million in FY16. House rules made it virtually impossible to reauthorize any grant programs. The “pay-go” and “cut-go” rules required any spending above current appropriated and authorized levels to be offset by other, current spending.

The stakeholder community stands ready to work on a Byrne JAG reauthorization bill whenever appropriate.