Sponsors (16)
The bill preserves federal support for jurisdictions that maintain traditional police funding and stricter pretrial policies but does so by conditioning grants in ways that penalize jurisdictions pursuing bail reform or reallocating police budgets, trading support for public-safety programs against incentives for criminal-justice reform and local budgeting flexibility.
Local governments and police departments that maintain or restore police funding and keep stricter pretrial policies will remain eligible for Department of Justice public-safety grants, preserving federal support for local law-enforcement programs.
Victims and community service providers in jurisdictions that avoid broad cash-bail limits are more likely to retain DOJ-funded crime-prevention and victim-service programs because those jurisdictions remain eligible for grants tied to current pretrial practices.
People in jurisdictions pursuing pretrial-release reforms (including low-income individuals and people with disabilities) could see those reforms discouraged or reversed because the law links grant eligibility to stricter pretrial policies, creating financial penalties for adopting alternatives to detention.
States and cities that adopt bail reform or make proportionate police-budget cuts risk losing DOJ grant funding, which would reduce resources for law enforcement and victim services at the local level.
Urban jurisdictions that reallocate police funding to other services may be barred from federal grants unless cuts are proportionate across all departments, limiting municipal budgeting flexibility and efforts to fund non-policing services.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Conditions two federal public-safety grants on local bail policies and police-budget decisions, making some jurisdictions ineligible if they limit cash bail, allow PR for felons, or cut police budgets (with limited exception).
Prohibits the Department of Justice from awarding or renewing two federal public-safety grant programs to local governments that adopt certain bail-reform policies or that cut police budgets. Starting the first fiscal year after enactment, jurisdictions that substantially limit cash bail for specified violent, sexual, or public-disorder offenses, or that allow judges to release previously convicted felons on personal recognizance, would be ineligible for one set of grants. Separately, urbanized localities that reduced a law enforcement agency’s budget in the prior fiscal year would be ineligible for another set of grants unless the cut was part of a proportional, government-wide shortfall.
Introduced September 30, 2025 by Mark Harris · Last progress September 30, 2025