In mid-November, President Obama signed the appropriations minibus, which contains fiscal year (FY) 2012 agriculture, commerce, justice, transportation, and housing appropriations bills. Within the minibus was funding for the Department of Justice, which administers several of the assistance grants for state, local, and tribal law enforcement.

Specifically, the bill provides $198.2 million, including $141 million for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Program, after carve-outs. The COPS program seeks to fund critical programs for combating methamphetamine production and trafficking; for tribal law enforcement; for fighting gun trafficking and reducing gang violence; for hiring school resource officers and establishing school-based partnerships between local law enforcement agencies and local school systems to combat crime, gangs, and drug activities; for paying for officers hired to perform intelligence, antiterrorism, or homeland security duties; and for the recruitment of inactive military personnel to pursue the law enforcement profession.