HR6666-119

What This Bill Does

The HIRRE Prosecutors Act requires the Attorney General to establish within one year a competitive grant program to help state, territorial, local, and tribal governments hire prosecutors. Prosecutor offices may apply annually, and funds may only be used to hire, retain, and train prosecutors or support staff. DOJ may use any department component to run the program. The Attorney General may prioritize applications to hire and train new prosecutors or support staff, rehire prosecutors laid off due to budget reductions, and serve tribal, remote, or rural jurisdictions. The federal share is capped at 75 percent, but DOJ may waive the 25 percent match when equitable given financial circumstances. Funds may not supplant state, local, tribal, or Bureau of Indian Affairs funding, though forfeiture equitable sharing assets and certain tribal prosecutorial funds may count toward the nonfederal share. Each project must include monitoring and data collection, DOJ must evaluate projects, grantees may have to submit monitoring and evaluation results, and DOJ may revoke or suspend noncompliant grants. The bill authorizes $10 million per year for fiscal years 2026 through 2030.

Who Benefits and How

State, local, territorial, and tribal prosecutor offices benefit from grant funding to hire, retain, and train prosecutors and support staff. Rural, remote, and tribal jurisdictions benefit from preferential consideration. Communities benefit if prosecutor staffing shortages are reduced and case handling improves. Prosecutors who were laid off due to budget reductions may benefit from rehire funding. DOJ benefits from monitoring and evaluation data about prosecutor staffing grants.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Attorney General and DOJ grant staff must create the program, review applications, manage match waivers, enforce anti-supplanting rules, collect monitoring data, evaluate projects, and suspend or revoke grants when necessary. Recipient prosecutor offices must apply, provide the nonfederal share unless waived, track activities and accomplishments, submit data, and avoid supplanting existing funds. State, local, and tribal budget offices must coordinate grant funding with existing prosecutor budgets. Federal taxpayers fund the $10 million annual authorization.

Key Provisions

• Requires DOJ to establish a prosecutor hiring grant program within one year.
• Authorizes grants for hiring, retaining, and training prosecutors or prosecutor-office support staff.
• Allows priority for new hires, rehiring after budget layoffs, and tribal, remote, or rural jurisdictions.
• Caps the federal share at 75 percent while allowing equitable match waivers.
• Requires monitoring, evaluation, data collection, and anti-supplanting compliance.
• Authorizes $10 million annually for fiscal years 2026 through 2030.