Congress Approves FY 2010 Juvenile Justice Appropriations
On December 13, 2009, Congress approved H.R. 3288, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010, which provides, among other things, FY 2010 funding for core federal juvenile justice programs. The bill became law on December 16, 2009 and can be viewed in its entirety here.
FY 2010 funding levels for federal juvenile justice programs break down as follows:
In millions:
FY02
FY09
President’s Proposal for FY10
House
Proposal
for FY10
Senate Proposal for FY10
Conference
Report
forFY10
CJJ REQUEST for FY10
OJJDP
$6.8
--
--
--
--
--
$9
Rsch, Eval, Training & TA
--
--
up to $36
up to $36
up to $25
up to $36
$36
Title IIState Formula Funds
$88.8
$75
$75
$75
$70
$75
$89
Title VLocal Delinq. Prevention
$94.3
$62
$62
$62
$65
$65
$95
JABG
$249.5
$55
$57
$55
$60
$55
$250
DPBG
N/A
0
0
0
0
0
$126.4
Demonstration programs (earmarks)
--
$82
0
$68
$82
$91
0
Mentoring
$16
$80
$80
$80
$100
$100
$100
Community-based prevention
n/a
n/a
$25
$18
0
$10
$25
Safe Start
--
--
$10
$7
$5
$5
$10
The encouraging news:
H.R. 3288 provides level-funding for the Title II program at $75 million with no set-aside for the Safe Start Program. (The Senate had originally proposed setting aside $5 million of the Title II allocation to fund Safe Start.)
H.R. 3288 provides $65 million for the Title V program, which will make an additional $3 million available to the states over last fiscal year’s appropriation.
H.R. 3288 provides an additional $20 million for mentoring programs over last fiscal year’s appropriation, for a total of $100 million.
H.R. 3288 provides $10 million in new money to fund the President’s new community-based prevention program. This will be a competitive grant program.
H.R. 3288 provides up to $36 million to support research, evaluation and training and technical assistance around justice programs, including juvenile justice programs.
Where additional advocacy is needed for future appropriation cycles:
H.R. 3288 continues to allow more than 90% of the Title V program funds to be set-asides/earmarks, which strips away funding for the core purposes of Title V.
H.R. 3288 provides $91 million in congressional earmarks for Demonstration Programs, which is $9 million more than originally proposed by the Senate and $23 million more than originally proposed by the House. Allocation and use of these dollars are not tied to states’ Three-Year Plans under the JJDPA and are not subject to the same performance measures as other grant programs, making it difficult to determine whether the funds are being used effectively and producing good outcomes.
H.R. 3288 does not provide discernible separate and direct funding for OJJDP, a missed opportunity which signals the need for increased congressional education regarding the goals and purposes of the federal-state partnership and OJJDP.
