WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Justice Department plans to consolidate three grant components — the Office on Violence Against Women, the Office of Justice Programs, and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services — into a new Bureau of Justice Grants starting in September 2027.
The Justice Department held a stakeholder briefing to detail a timeline for this consolidation. According to a presentation slide shown to stakeholders, June would be used for additional stakeholder briefings, with June and July allocated for accounting for feedback. July and August would then be used to seek Office of Management and Budget approval and to notify Congress, and the department intends to begin executing the consolidation in September.
Federal law requires the office to operate as a separate office within the Justice Department. This law also mandates that the director of the office report to the attorney general and maintain final authority over the office's grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts. Congress established the separate status of the office in the 2000s, and a 2022 law further stipulated that the office shall not be subsumed by any other office.
Rosie Hidalgo, former director of the office, stated, "It is very concerning that the Department of Justice is taking steps to dismantle the functions and structure of the Office on Violence Against Women, contrary to the clear statutory language for the implementation of the Violence Against Women Act that was enacted by Congress." Senator Lisa Murkowski addressed the issue, stating, "We provide that OVW may not be subsumed by another grant making component within DOJ. So, we want to make sure that, again, DOJ is going to maintain OVW's statutory responsibilities and how they move forward with their grant making."
A Justice Department spokesperson stated, "This consolidated grants entity will maintain the integrity and functionality of OJP, COPS, and OVW while simultaneously reducing bureaucracy and red tape." The spokesperson also stated that the department intends to comply with all congressional notification and statutory requirements before implementing the consolidation.
The Trump administration previously proposed consolidating OVW and COPS into OJP in 2025. Congress rejected this proposal by inserting language in a report accompanying a final fiscal 2026 budget bill, directing the department to maintain the offices as distinct organizational grantmaking entities. A report tied to a Republican-backed fiscal 2027 appropriations bill in the House similarly directs the Justice Department to maintain OVW and COPS as distinct entities for grantmaking.