The Justice Department would receive $27.1 billion in fiscal 2012–an increase of $18 million above last year, under a massive appropriations bill the House and Senate are expected to pass shortly.
The funding level is $1.3 billion below President Barack Obama’s request for Fiscal 2012, but is higher than the funding level the House had proposed. In its version of the Commerce, Justice, science appropriations measure, the House had proposed providing $26.35 billion.
The funding levels are contained in a so-called “mini-bus” appropriations bill. It is called that because it contains several–but not all Fiscal 2012 spending measures.
The funding measure would provide almost $2.3 billion in aid to state and local law enforcement agencies; that represents a $570 million cut below last year’s level. Again, that spending level is higher than the House-proposed level. The Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, a favorite target for Republicans, would be funded at almost $199 million, a cut of $296.4 million.
The bill continues to include a provision dealing with Guantanamo Bay. The provision prohibits the transfer or release of any detainee into the U.S., and a prohibition on the acquisition or construction of any new prison to house detainees.
The bill also would provide the:
- FBI with $8.1 billion, an increase of $192 million from last year;
- Drug Enforcement Administration with $2 billion, a $20 million increase. The appropriations bill includes an increase of $32 million for programs that fight prescription drug abuse;
- Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with $1.2 billion, a $39 million boost from last year.
The funding bill does not include Senate language addressing the controversial ATF Operation Fast and Furious, during which federal officials in the southwest allowed guns to “walk” into Mexico as part of an effort to trace them. The operation is now being investigated by the department’s Inspector General, as well as congressional Republicans. The Senate had adopted an amendment that would have expressly prohibited ATF from funding any operation that allowed guns to “walk.” DOJ officials had said that provision was not needed because Attorney General Eric Holder had issued orders that such an operation not occur again.
The appropriations bill does not include the Senate language, but simply acknowledges Holder’s order. In addition, the bill states that “Operation Fast and Furious is but a small part of ATF’s extensive operations along the
Southwest Border and should not detract from ATF’s efforts to protect Americans from illegal firearms trafficking, gun violence, and parallel drug and human trafficking across the U.S.Mexico border and into the Nation’s interior.”
