CJJ | Announcement: CJJ UPDATE ON JUVENILE JUSTICE APPROPRIATIONS
The full U.S. Senate finally completed its work on the Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) appropriations bill late Tuesday, October 23. The CJS bill contains all the juvenile-justice related funding streams.
The Senate and the House are now quietly conferencing to reconcile differences between the Senate version and the House version of the CJS bills. (See chart below.) In the meantime, all federal funding is being appropriated under a Continuing Resolution through November 16, 2007.
Because President Bush is still standing firm on this threat to veto all non-military spending bills, the Democrats are proposing to send the Labor/HHS/Education bill to the President first to see if he vetoes it, and then attempt to override the veto before sending any more bills to him for signature. It is anticipated that the CJS bill would go to the President next.
If the President follows through with his vetoes, then the strategy would be to pile all the appropriations bills—including the military spending bills—into one big omnibus bill. President Bush doesn’t have a line item veto, so he would have to veto the whole bill, including the military spending portions.
Ah, the politics of Washington. Now you know why we need you!
It is not too late to communicate with your Congressional delegation. To assist you in being as effective as possible is a short amount of time, we have drafted an Appropriations template letter (click below) to help you help your representatives understand why it is critical that the CJS bill pass this year. Please feel free to revise the letter to fit the particular needs of your state.
We urge you to fax the letter to your entire Congressional delegation, especially your Republican representatives. If President Bush vetoes the CJS or any other bills, the Democrats will need Republicans to vote with them in order to mount a successful veto override.[1] Template Letter
KEY STREAMS OF FEDERAL JJ FUNDING AS APPROPRIATED (in millions):
| |
FY02 | House Proposal |
Senate Proposal |
CJJ REQUEST for FY08 |
| Title II State Formula Funds |
$88.8 | $81.175 | $73 | $96 |
| Title V Local Delinq. Prevention |
$94.3 | $70 $25 for EUDL $25 for GREAT $17.5 for Tribal Youth |
$65 $25 for EUDL $10 for Tribal Youth |
$95 |
JABG |
$249.5 | $60 | $80 | $250 |
DPBG |
N/A | $0 | $0 | $126.4 |
In addition to the above, both chambers propose $40 million for drug courts and more money for mentoring programs (Senate, $5 million; House, $100 million). The House and Senate also propose $53 million and $76.5 million, respectively, to fund local delinquency prevention programs under Secs. 261 and 262 of the JJDPA. This funding, however, is heavily earmarked for certain programs and therefore would not be available to the states through their SAGs.
[2] Click here for lists of Senate and House Appropriations Committees charged with reshaping juvenile justice funding support.
Questions? Please feel free to contact:
Tara Andrews, CJJ Deputy Executive Director:
202-467-0864, ext. 109 and [3] andrews@juvjustice.org
Linda Hayes, Chair, CJJ Government Relations Committee:
910-892-4469 and [4] lhayes@harnettlaw.com
[1]: http://juvjustice.org/media/fckeditor/Appropriations Template Letter.doc
[2]: http://www.juvjustice.org/government_relations_appropriations.html
[3]: mailto:andrews@juvjustice.org
[4]: mailto:lhayes@harnettlaw.com