Budget would cut local anti-crime grants again

President Bush's proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2008, "calls for more FBI funding but less for state and local anticrime grants," reports Ted Gest in the daily news digest of Criminal Justice Journalists.

The Drug Enforcement Administration would get "a slight increase," but the Justice Department budget "would gut the Office of Justice Programs, which oversees state and local anticrime grants, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), the Office on Violence Against Women, and the Office for Victims of Crime," CJJ reports.

"The White House would give the agency only $813 million, compared to the $2.3 billion appropriated by Congress this year. Advocates are seeking more funds for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program in a supplemental appropriations bill for the current fiscal year after Congress cut funding in December. The budget again proposed $200 million for a violent crime reduction partnership initiative, but Congress has not provided full funding for that in recent years."

Bush "seeks more than $7.1 billion for the FBI, compared with this year's $6.5 billion appropriation," CJJ reports. "The proposal includes $361 million in new money for intelligence and counterterrorism programs."