Where Biden’s federal law enforcement budget ranks among global military expenditures

Speaking Security Newsletter | Advisory Note for Organizers and Candidates, n°90 | 23 June 2021

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Situation

The Biden administration released its strategy for countering domestic terrorism last week. The two predictable things it does is “both-sides” the terrorism discussion, meaning that even though right-wing terrorism is the main problem, it lumps in anti-capitalist actors under the same domestic extremism umbrella (it even appears more lenient to right-wing actors in some places).

The second predictable thing it does is call for more money for federal law enforcement, including “over $100 million in additional resources for DOJ, FBI, and DHS” in the president’s budget request for FY2022. Decades of evidence show that these institutions tend to disproportionately designate non-white groups as extremists and target them accordingly. Evidence also suggests that policy checks on this extended mandate is unlikely.

Biden’s federal law enforcement budget

The amount Biden requests for federal law enforcement* for FY2022 is equal to the amount Russia spent on its military last year (FY2020), according to the 2021 IISS Military Balance report. That means Biden wants his federal law enforcement budget to be larger than all military budgets worldwide except for five (one of them being the US) next year.

*Methodology for counting federal law enforcement funding: From the Department of Justice (DOJ) I count Biden’s proposed FY2022 budgets for the FBI, DEA, ATF, and Marshals Service. From the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) I count Biden’s proposed spending in FY2022 for the CBP, ICE, TSA, Coast Guard, and Secret Service.

Thanks for your time,

Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org)

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