President Biden's proposed federal budget for the year starting Oct. 1 "makes robust investments to bolster federal law enforcement capacity," the White House says. The budget includes $17.8 billion for Justice Department law enforcement, including a total of nearly $2 billion for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to expand multijurisdictional gun trafficking strike forces with additional personnel, increase regulation of the firearms industry, and implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The budget provides DOJ $4.9 billion in discretionary resources for state and local grants to enhance public safety, including $537 million for the COPS Hiring Program, and $30 billion in mandatory resources to fund President Biden’s Safer America Plan.
The budget requests $19.4 billion over 10 years for crime prevention strategies and affirms the President’s goal to provide $5 billion over 10 years for community violence interventions, the White House says. However, Congress has not voted for Biden's multi-billion dollar decadeslong crime proposals in the past. Biden proposed $1 billion to support implementation of programs through the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA). The budget would provide $252 million, an increase of $62 million over the 2023 enacted level, in the DOJ Civil Rights Division. These resources would support police reform via pattern-or-practice investigations, the prosecution of hate crimes, enforcement of voting rights, and efforts to provide equitable access to justice, the White House said. Biden would spend $300 million to support the first year of a new ten-year Accelerating Justice System Reform program as part of the President’s Safer America Plan. The White House seeks $760 million for juvenile justice programs, an increase of $360 million over the 2023 enacted level, to bolster "diversionary juvenile justice strategies."