White House Outlines $37 Billion Crime Prevention Proposal

President Joe Biden is asking Congress to allocate roughly $37 billion towards crime prevention. 

Biden canceled plans to announce the proposal in a speech after testing positive for COVID-19 Thursday morning. The proposed crime prevention plan, titled the “Safer America Plan,” includes $13 billion over the next five years to hire and train 100,000 police officers for accountable community policing; $3 billion to help communities clear court backlogs; a new $15 billion grant program for cities and states to use over the next 10 years to prevent violent crime and identify non-violent situations needing a public health response; and $5 million for “evidence-based community violence intervention programs.” The plan also includes actions like imposing tougher penalties for fentanyl trafficking, imposing liability on online platforms for selling stolen goods, and lifting “nearly all” eligibility restrictions on federal benefits for people trying “to get back on their feet” after incarceration.

The plan is part of Biden’s 2023 federal budget request. A White House fact sheet explained, “President Biden’s fiscal year 2023 budget requests a fully paid-for new investment of approximately $35 billion to support law enforcement and crime prevention – in addition to the President’s $2 billion discretionary request for these same programs.”

Coverage was mostly balanced but more common in left-rated outlets than in right-rated outlets; coverage might have been more common had Biden made his public announcement.