Assistance program
NICS Act Record Improvement Program
$119.2 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Office of Justice Programs, Justice, Department of
- Assistance
- Cooperative Agreements
- CFDA number
- 16.813
- What it does
- GOAL(S): To improve the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) by providing assistance to states to improve the completeness, automation, and transmittal to state and federal systems the records used by the NICS. OBJECTIVE(S): Ensure that the infrastructure is developed to connect the state's and tribe's records systems to the national records systems operated by the FBI, including the NCIC, NGI, III, and NICS Indices. Performance Measure 1: Number of states and tribes participating or making records available to the NICS. Performance Measure 2: Number of records available in the NICS. Performance Measure 3: Percentage of complete records made available to the NICS. Performance Measure 4: Percentage of applications for firearm transfers rejected due to data made available to the NICS.
- Who benefits
- Not Applicable
- Who applies
- Applications must be submitted by (a) the agency designated by the Governor to administer the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP); (b) the state or territory central administrative office or similar entity designated by statute or regulation to administer federal grant funds on behalf of the jurisdiction's court system; or (c) a federally recognized Indian tribal government. In accordance with the NICS Improvement Amendments Act (see 18 U.S.C. § 922 note), there are two specific conditions that each state must satisfy before being eligible to receive grants: 1. First, “each State shall provide the Attorney General with a reasonable estimate, as calculated by a method determined by the Attorney General… of the number of the records†subject to the NIAA completeness requirements. (Id.) 2. Second, “to be eligible for a grant under this [program], a State shall certify, to the satisfaction of the Attorney General, that the State has implemented a relief from disabilities program.†(Id.) For the purpose of this solicitation, a “relief from disabilities program†is a program that permits persons who have been adjudicated a mental defective or committed to a mental institution to obtain relief from the firearms disabilities imposed by law as a result of such adjudication or commitment. This relief must be based on a finding, in accordance with principles of due process, by a state court, board, commission, or other lawful authority, that the circumstances of the disability and the person’s record and reputation are such that the person will not be likely to act in a manner dangerous to the public safety and that the granting of relief would not be contrary to the public interest. The certification form is available on the ATF website at https://www.atf.gov/file/11731/download. Further, applications submitted on behalf of state court systems must specifically assure that: (1) the court system has the capability to contribute and will transmit pertinent information to the NICS established under section 103(b) of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (18 U.S.C. 922 note), and (2) that it will coordinate the programs proposed for NARIP funding with other federally funded information technology programs, including directly funded local programs. Funds awarded to the state or tribe may be allocated for use in state or local/tribal agencies or the courts, but should have an impact on national record systems. Private organizations may receive funds under contract arrangements with a state/tribal agency or its subgrantees to which NCHIP funds are allocated by the state/tribe.
- Authorized by
- NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 U.S.C. § 34 U.S.C. §§ 40913
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