Biden asks Congress for $37 billion to fight crime ahead of midterm elections

President Joe Biden is expected to lay out plans to ask Congress for $37 billion for crime prevention programs.

Biden will outline his Safer America Plan, which allocates $13 billion to hire and train an additional 100,000 police officers over the next five years, $3 billion to help communities clear their court backlogs, and a 13% funding increase for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives .

The plan, which was set to be introduced in a visit to Pennsylvania on Thursday before Biden tested positive for COVID-19, also puts $15 billion toward a grant program called the Accelerating Justice System Reform that cities and states can use over the next 10 years to address the causes of crime and ease the burden on police officers by "identifying non-violent situations that may merit a public health response or other response," the White House said.