Assistance program
DNA Backlog Reduction Program
$550.4 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Ojp Bureau of Justice Assistance, Justice, Department of
- Assistance
- Cooperative Agreements (Discretionary Grants)
- CFDA number
- 16.741
- What it does
- Program now funded under Assistance Listing 16.036. Goal(s): ?The goal is to assist eligible States and units of local government to increase laboratory capacity and reduce the number of samples awaiting analysis in both the casework and database sections. Objective: To assist eligible States and units of local government to process, record, screen, and analyze forensic DNA and/or DNA database samples to increase the capacity of public forensic DNA and DNA database laboratories to process more DNA samples, thereby helping to reduce the number of forensic DNA and DNA database samples awaiting analysis. The Formula DNA CEBR Program awards funding to eligible entities with two main program objectives: 1. Increase the number of CODIS-eligible samples analyzed in forensic DNA and DNA database laboratories. 2. Reduce the forensic case and DNA database sample turnaround times for CODIS entry. Performance Measure 1: Number of DNA profile uploads into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS); and, Performance Measure 2: Number of cases completed since the beginning of the grant period.
- Who benefits
- Beneficiary eligibility is the same as applicant eligibility. See the current fiscal year’s NOFO available at www.bja.gov
- Who applies
- A state or unit of local government (or any department, agency, or instrumentality of the foregoing) that does not own, control, or operate a crime laboratory or laboratory system is not an eligible applicant under this program. For example, a state or unit of local government that receives forensic services only by way of an inter- or intra- governmental arrangement or contract but does not own, control, or operate its own crime laboratory within its jurisdiction, is not eligible under this program. All recipients and subrecipients (including any for-profit organization) must forgo any profit or management fee. For the purposes of this solicitation, “state†means any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. See the current fiscal year’s solicitation available at www.bja.gov
- Authorized by
- An act appropriating funds for the Department of Justice in the current fiscal year and, beginning with fiscal year 2018 and in certain, specified subsequent years, Section 3(a) of P.L. 114-324, the Justice for All Reauthorization Act of 2016 (see program solicitation and award d…
- Program site
- https://www.usdoj.gov/bja ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments