Byrneing Down the House
The so-called “stimulus” bill signed by President Obama on February 17 has come under withering fire for being rife with wasteful boondoggles whose purposes are increasingly deemed to be more politically motivated than economically sound. The bill contains funding for dozens of new programs and exorbitant plus-ups for many existing programs. For example, buried in the depths of the leviathan-like bill is $2 billion for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program. In addition to the “stimulus” funding, Congress intends to include more money for the program in the upcoming fiscal year (FY) 2010 appropriations bills as well.
Byrne JAG has been around since 1988 in one form or another. In 2005, Congress merged several Department of Justice (DOJ) grant programs under the Byrne JAG umbrella. There are essentially two Byrne JAG programs running on parallel but separate tracks at the DOJ. One is the formula side of the program, which in FY 2008 received $170 million. Then, there are what are commonly referred to as the “Byrne earmarks.” In FY 2008, that side of the program got $187 million in congressionally-directed funds, for a combined total of $358 million. In FY 2006 and 2008 alone, the program received 854 earmarks worth $401,202,640. The formula portion is distributed based upon state population and state crime statistics.
But, as the program has become increasingly earmarked, the grants have devolved into an untargeted giveaway program with too much flexibility, no effective targeting strategy, weak oversight, and few consequences for mismanagement of the funds. It has become an open-ended entitlement program which is being used to subsidize the states’ routine operational law enforcement expenses.
The Byrne JAG program has also drawn the scrutiny of budget watchdog groups. In 2007, after scandals began to emerge over internal funding decisions, an effort was made to reinstate a more rational grant-making process, only to have members of Congress and even officials within the DOJ continue to bypass peer review to hand out grants to favored recipients. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) spoke of the lack of oversight in the Byrne program in a June 19, 2008 Washington Post article, saying “Some bureaucrat cannot decide on a whim who gets precious tax dollars. It’s insulting to all the programs that work hard on their applications to have merit take a back seat to who you know.”
ExpectMore.gov, the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) rating system for all federal programs, describes the Byrne grants as “a variety of potential local law enforcement activities rather than a clearly defined, specific or existing problem, interest, or need.” The OMB goes on to say, “With program funds eligible to be used for multiple purposes, the Department of Justice cannot target the funds to high priority uses. There are no meaningful goals for the program. Performance measures are still under development. Grantees are not required to report on performance. As a result, it is difficult to determine what the program is accomplishing.” Finally, the OMB is “recommending replacing the program because it is unfocused and cannot demonstrate results.”
The Byrne JAG “stimulus” funding of $2 billion is a 458.7 percent increase above the $358 million in FY 2008, despite having a track record of aimless spending and documented weaknesses in its oversight. It is just one of many broken programs getting a massive influx of new money while taxpayers are getting Byrned.
