House appropriators press DOJ on $34 billion FY2026 budget, proposed ATF–DEA merger and grant cuts

Attorney General Pam Bondi told the House Appropriations subcommittee that the Department of Justice’s fiscal year 2026 budget request totals just under $34,000,000,000 and is intended to “return the department to its core mission of keeping Americans safe.”

Members of the subcommittee pressed Bondi on specific proposals in the request, including a roughly $3,000,000,000 reduction from FY2025, a proposed merger of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the elimination or reduction of several grant programs that fund state and local law enforcement and community programs.

The funding request, as described by the chair, would allocate about $11,000,000,000 to target violent crime, $10,000,000,000 to drug enforcement, roughly $3,000,000,000 to fight transnational organized crime, and over $3,500,000,000 for immigration enforcement. Bondi said the budget also seeks efficiencies by merging overlapping components so “we will emerge from this work as a leaner organization better equipped to keep the American people safe.”

Ranking members and Democrats on the panel responded by citing document language…