Ranking Member Matt Cartwright Statement at the Fiscal Year 2024 Department of Justice Budget Request Hearing

Congressman Matt Cartwright (D-PA), Ranking Member of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's hearing on the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Request for the Department of Justice:

Thank you, Chairman Rogers, and I join you in welcoming our witness Attorney General Merrick Garland. Attorney General Garland, welcome back to our subcommittee, and we look forward to your regarding the President's budget request regarding the fiscal year 2024, for the Justice Department.

Last year we made critical investments and down payments in your Department, and I look forward to hearing from you how the resources we provided will support the important work across the Justice Department as well as how these investments are making our communities safer in this country.

The mission of the Justice Department is vast and broad. There is no shortage of topics I know we will discuss here today: enforcing and upholding the rule of law; support for State, local, and tribal law enforcement; combatting drug trafficking networks to keep dangerous narcotics out of our communities; defense of our national security and mitigation of emerging foreign and domestic threats, including cyber threats. I know we'll hear of the critical tasks the Department is carrying out, including preservation of civil liberties and support for free and fair elections; protection of vulnerable populations exposed to domestic and community violence; and safeguarding our commerce and economy.

DOJ also administers a massive, complex detention and correction enterprise, adjudicates immigration benefits, and oversees a broad and sophisticated criminal investigative and prosecutorial system.

To carry out the Department's broad missions I just mentioned, your FY 2024 budget request seeks $39.7 billion in discretionary funding, about 6 percent above the previous enacted level.

While I know there are voices about reducing funding levels across non-defense agencies, like DOJ, I don't think Congress can ignore some of the challenges we are facing in our communities back home, and I echo the concern of the Chairman about the record numbers of deaths due to the opioid epidemic as well as increases in crime and gun violence. Congress must continue to build on the investments we made last year to the COPS Hiring program and increases to our Federal law enforcement to provide them the necessary tools to face these existing and emerging challenges.

Further, we need to sustain critical grant programs, such as those under the Office on Violence Against Women, to address the "shadow pandemic" of domestic and partner violence which did surge globally during the COVID-19 pandemic. Congress authorized new programs under the 2023 Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization, and I look forward to seeing the continuation of those programs in FY 2024.

Attorney General Garland, you have a big job that is only getting bigger all the time. So once again, welcome, and I look forward to your testimony and working with you on how we can best invest in FY 2024.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.