~30 DOJ Grant Programs to States and Localities
(State/Local Grants)
Department of JusticeState/local law enforcement (Byrne JAG, COPS, OVW); 550+ organizations in 48 states already lost grants
Summary
This budget line covers about 30 U.S. Department of Justice grant programs that send money to states, cities, and counties for policing, crime prevention, and victim services, including Byrne Justice Assistance Grants, COPS hiring grants, and Office on Violence Against Women grants. The FY2027 budget proposes eliminating these programs entirely, cutting $1.7 billion, even as DOJ's overall budget grows because the administration wants to shift resources toward immigration enforcement and federal prosecutions.
Who Is Affected
State and local police departments, sheriffs' offices, and thousands of community nonprofits that run domestic-violence shelters, rape crisis centers, and violence-intervention programs rely on these grants; Byrne JAG money flows to jurisdictions in all 50 states and COPS grants have long funded police hiring and equipment like body cameras. A related round of DOJ grant terminations in April 2025 already cut off more than 550 organizations across 48 states worth roughly $500 million, a preview of the deeper cuts now proposed for FY2027.
What this cut would actually mean
Without this money, many small nonprofits that depend almost entirely on federal justice grants — since they have no comparable state or private funding source — would have to lay off staff, close domestic-violence shelters, or end victim-advocacy and forensic-lab services outright. Police departments that used these grants for hiring, body cameras, and crisis-intervention teams would need to find new local funding or cut those programs, and the Council on Criminal Justice has already documented service gaps and staff layoffs at organizations hit by the earlier 2025 grant terminations.
Sources
- FY 2027 DOJ budget proposal: What it means for public safety grants — Details how the FY2027 budget consolidates COPS, OJP, and OVW and cuts hundreds of millions from long-standing public safety grant programs.
- The FY2027 Budget Proposes Eliminating $13 Billion in Grants That Cities and Counties Depend On — Reports that the FY2027 budget proposes eliminating or deeply cutting roughly $1.7 billion in DOJ state and local grant programs, including Byrne JAG, COPS Hiring, and VAWA grants.
- DOJ Funding Cuts: More Than 550 Organizations Impacted, New Analysis Finds — Council on Criminal Justice analysis finding that 554 organizations across 48 states and territories were affected by the DOJ's 2025 Office of Justice Programs grant terminations.
- Justice Department Slashes Essential Services for Crime Victims — Documents specific nonprofits, such as Raksha in Georgia, that lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in DOJ victim-services grant funding and had to scale back programs.
- Public safety groups face an uncertain future months after federal grant cuts — NPR reporting on how nonprofits that lost DOJ crime-prevention and public-safety grants have struggled to replace the funding and continue services.
- Overview of FY2027 Appropriations for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) — Congressional Research Service summary showing the Administration's proposed reductions to the State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance, COPS, and OVW accounts in the FY2027 budget request.
Administration's Stated Rationale
“Crime prevention and victim services grants cut; DOJ refocuses on immigration enforcement and federal law.”