Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

17. Department of Justice · Notable

Refocus National Institute of Justice research funding

Partially done

572 17. Department of Justice

“Research funded by the National Institute of Justice should follow similar principles. The NIJ should fund high-quality, unbiased research on the topics of greatest interest to everyday Americans and policymakers rather than agenda-driven research desired by advocates or academics.”

What has happened

  1. Partially done

    The FY2026 cycle carries the test forward. NIJ FY 2026 Research and Evaluation of Services for Victims of Crime (O-NIJ-2026-172659, posted 2026-07-22) states the same five Agency Funding Priorities: "NIJ may give priority consideration to applications proposing (as applicable within the scope of this NOFO) projects designed to advance the goals listed below". Applicants seeking priority consideration must complete an Agency Funding Priorities Inventory, and a Gold Standard Science statement is an application component. The NOFO also puts out of scope any activity that "violates (or promotes or facilitates the violation of) federal immigration law" or any federal civil-rights law. Still `partial`, for the reasons given at 2026-03-19. No court order reaches NIJ's priorities. New Jersey v. DOJ (D.R.I. 1:25-cv-00404) challenges conditions on Victims of Crime Act money, and its latest filings found are amended complaints of 2026-08-21 and 2026-09-03.

  2. Partially done

    NIJ applied a priority test in its own solicitations. The first competitive NIJ research solicitation of the window, NIJ FY25 Research and Evaluation on Violence Against Women (O-NIJ-2025-172572, posted 2026-03-19), was read in full on 2026-09-29. It says: "In order to advance public safety and help meet its mission, NIJ will provide priority consideration to applicants that propose (as applicable within the scope of this funding opportunity) projects designed to advance the goals listed below: (a) Directly supporting law enforcement operations (including immigration law enforcement operations); (b) Combatting violent crime; (c) Supporting services to American citizens; (d) Protecting American children; and (e) Supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault." It also asks every applicant for "a clear statement of commitment to complying with the principles and tenets of GSS", Gold Standard Science under Executive Order 14303. That is NIJ steering its research money by a stated set of priorities and a quality standard, a piece of what the Quote asks. It is `partial` and not `done` for three reasons. Priority consideration is, in the NOFO's words, "one of many factors". The priorities are the department's list, not a finding about the topics of greatest interest to everyday Americans and policymakers. And nothing shows the awards themselves moved away from agenda-driven research. The same clause and the same Gold Standard Science requirement recur in the May 2026 solicitations (for example O-NIJ-2025-172603, Research and Evaluation of Policing Practices, posted 2026-05-07).

  3. Attempted

    Executive Order 14332 orders every agency head, the Attorney General included, to have a senior appointee review funding opportunity announcements and discretionary awards under the principle that "[d]iscretionary awards must, where applicable, demonstrably advance the President's policy priorities" (§4(b)(i)). Research grants get review by a subject-matter expert (§3(a)(vi)), and applicants commit to Gold Standard Science (§4(b)(v)-(vi)). The order's purpose section faults "unfocused research of marginal social utility". That is the government-wide form of this Quote: research money aimed at what the administration and policymakers need, to a quality standard. It is `attempted` under playbook §3b: a directive, with no NIJ solicitation yet issued under it. NIJ posted no funding opportunity on grants.gov between 2025-01-03 and 2026-02-09.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

One negative search covered the whole cluster of statistics and research asks, #1588–#1591.

  • The budget pages had moved (reviewed 2026-09-05). justice.gov/jmd/budget-and-performance no longer exists; https://www.justice.gov/doj/budget-and-performance opens, and the FY 2027 OJP narrative (https://www.justice.gov/jmd/media/1434636/dl?inline) reads cleanly. The NIJ passages are on pages 2 and 26; the First Step Act line is in the Transfers-in/Reimbursements table on page 12.

  • Executive Order 14332 and NIJ’s grants (reviewed 2026-09-29). Leveled under the rule settled on 2026-09-29 for that order: where an ask’s object is priority-alignment of one agency’s awards, the order alone is attempted, and partial needs the agency’s own instrument applying the priority test. The Quote asks that NIJ’s research money go to topics of public and policy interest and not to agenda-driven research, which is priority-alignment of this agency’s awards. So Executive Order 14332 is an attempted event dated 2025-08-07, and NIJ’s own solicitations, which apply a stated priority test, carry it to partial from 2026-03-19. Read on 2026-09-29: the grants.gov listing of every NIJ opportunity since December 2024 (none posted between 2025-01-03 and 2026-02-09); the NOFOs O-NIJ-2025-172572 (2026-03-19), O-NIJ-2025-172603 (2026-05-07) and O-NIJ-2026-172659 (2026-07-22), in full; and OJP’s Legal Overview for FY2025 and FY2026 with its General Conditions and research-requirements pages, none of which mentions EO 14332. The research-requirements page sets no topic priorities; the priorities live in the NOFOs. CourtListener’s search returned no suit against NIJ’s priorities. New Jersey v. DOJ (D.R.I. 1:25-cv-00404) concerns conditions on Victims of Crime Act money and is at the pleading stage.

  • Event removed 2026-09-29, settled on review: the 2026-04-02 not started event. It said no solicitation policy or priority statement had been issued, but NIJ’s own solicitation of 2026-03-19 (O-NIJ-2025-172572) had already stated five Agency Funding Priorities, so the item read partial (2026-03-19) → not started (2026-04-02) → partial (2026-07-22), a fall that never happened. A later finding replaces a stale event rather than leaving it to read as a reversal. The FY 2027 congressional justification it read is still accurate as described: it states no new research priorities. Its reading is kept here: Moved nearby. The Department’s FY 2027 Office of Justice Programs congressional justification — the document this item had been held open for — states no new research priorities. It describes NIJ in the terms it has always used, as “the research and development arm of the Department of Justice” providing “objective, independent, evidence-based knowledge and tools”, and requests $22 million for its Research, Development and Evaluation Programs, which “maintains NIJ’s commitment to informing criminal and juvenile justice practice and policy by supporting high-quality research, development, and evaluation in the forensic, social, and physical sciences” — maintenance, in the submission’s own word, not redirection, and no statement about whose interests the research should serve. The single NIJ-specific budget movement is the zeroing of the $8.19 million First Step Act Evaluations transfer, a reduction in a named congressional evaluation line rather than a reallocation toward the topics the Quote asks for. No solicitation policy, research agenda or priority statement has been issued. Earlier searches: every BJS, NIJ and OJP notice in the window among the Federal Register documents we keep and search (information-collection renewals for continuing studies only), the White House presidential actions we keep and search, and all 2,087 headquarters press releases from the department’s press release service.

Action
restrict
Object
National Institute of Justice research funding
ID
1590