HR-1726-119
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Sponsored by Joe Neguse (D-CO)
What it does
The bill would change the authorization of appropriations for the Project Safe Neighborhoods grant program from fiscal years 2019-2021 to fiscal years 2026-2030. It would add allowed uses of grant funds: hiring crime analysts, overtime for officers, prosecutors, and law enforcement assistants who assist the program, technology for violent crime reduction, and support for multi-jurisdictional task forces. It would also require the Attorney General to report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees at least annually on how each area spent funds, its community outreach, and its counts of violent crime offenses. The bill itself sets no dollar amount.
Who benefits
Local, state, and Tribal police departments and prosecutors' offices that could use grants to pay for analysts, overtime, technology, and task forces. Crime analysts and law enforcement assistants who may be hired with grant funds. Residents of high-violence neighborhoods, if the funded efforts reduce violent crime as supporters expect. Congressional Judiciary Committees, which would receive annual spending and crime data to use in oversight.
Who is hurt
Federal taxpayers, who would bear the cost of grants if Congress appropriates funds for fiscal years 2026-2030. Programs competing for the same Justice Department grant money, such as non-enforcement prevention efforts, which may receive less. Grantee agencies and the Justice Department, which would take on added reporting and administrative work. Residents of heavily policed neighborhoods who may be concerned about expanded technology use and enforcement, since the bill sets no limits on technology purchases.
Supporters argue
Supporters argue the program has operated in all 94 federal judicial districts since 2001 and that the authorization lapsed after fiscal year 2021, so renewal restores a proven coordination framework. They contend that paying for crime analysts, overtime, technology, and task forces fills practical gaps local agencies report, and that the new annual reporting requirement gives Congress data on spending and violent crime to hold the program accountable.
Opponents argue
Opponents argue that the bill authorizes five more years of spending without evidence in the text that the program reduces violent crime, and that the reporting requirement tracks crime counts rather than measuring effectiveness. They contend that open-ended technology purchases and overtime payments lack safeguards on surveillance, privacy, and civil liberties, and that the money could go to prevention or other approaches instead.
Constitutional context
Congress funds these grants under its Article I, Section 8 spending power, which South Dakota v. Dole (1987) allows when conditions are clearly stated and related to the program. The bill raises no direct constitutional question, though technology purchased with grant funds could face Fourth Amendment limits such as those in Carpenter v. United States (2018).
Checks and balances
Congress keeps its power over spending by authorizing funds and requiring annual Attorney General reports, while the executive branch's Justice Department administers the grants; the appropriations process and the reporting requirement serve as checks.
Historical precedent
Congress authorized the grant program in the Project Safe Neighborhoods Grant Program Authorization Act of 2018, which ran through fiscal year 2021, and this bill renews it.