Organization: Led by the Attorney General, DOJ is comprised of 40 components, which cover a variety of responsibilities. DOJ prosecutes federal law offenders and represents the U.S. Government in court; its attorneys represent the rights and interests of the American people and enforce federal criminal and civil laws, including antitrust, civil rights, environmental and tax; its immigration judges ensure speedy justice for detainees; its special agents investigate organized and violent crime, illegal drugs, gun and explosives violations; its marshals protect the federal judiciary, apprehend fugitives and transport persons in federal custody; its guards confine convicted federal offenders and detain illegal immigrants. DOJ also provides grants and training to state, local, and tribal partners; and brings together national security, counterterrorism, counterintelligence and foreign intelligence surveillance operations under a single authority.
Statutory Authority: The Judiciary Act of 1789, ch. 20, sec. 35, 1 Stat. 73, 92-93 (1789) created the Office of the Attorney General. In 1870, after the post-Civil War increase in the amount of litigation involving the United States necessitated the very expensive retention of a large number of private attorneys to handle the workload, a concerned Congress passed the Act to Establish the Department of Justice, ch. 150, 16 Stat. 162 (1870) setting it up as "an executive department of the government of the United States" with the Attorney General as its head. Officially coming into existence on July 1, 1870, the Department of Justice, pursuant to the 1870 Act, was to handle the legal business of the United States. The Act gave the Department control over all criminal prosecutions and civil suits in which the United States had an interest. In addition, the Act gave the Attorney General and the Department control over federal law enforcement. To assist the Attorney General, the 1870 Act created the Office of the Solicitor General.
The 1870 Act is the foundation upon which the Department of Justice still rests. However, the structure of the Department of Justice has changed over the years, with the addition of the Deputy Attorneys General and the formation of the Divisions. Unchanged is the steadily increasing workload of the Department. It has become the world's largest law office and the central agency for enforcement of federal laws.
FY 2010 Budget Request At A Glance
Discretionary Budget Authority
|FY 2009 Enacted:||$25.7 billion (107,487 positions)|
|Current Services Adjustments:||+$117.3 million (0.5% above FY 2009 Enacted)|
|Program Changes:||+$849.4 million|
|FY 2010 Budget Request:||$26.7 billion (111,464 positions)|
|Change from FY 2009 Enacted:||+$966.7 million (+3.8%) (+3,977 positions)|
The Department of Justiceís (DOJ) FY 2010 budget request totals $26.7 billion in discretionary funding, which is 3.8 percent above the FY 2009 level. The budget request is $966.7 million over the prior year enacted appropriation. This amount is comprised of $117.3 million to maintain current services, $1.94 billion for program enhancements, and $1.09 billion in program offsets. After $2.7 billion in scorekeeping adjustments, DOJís FY 2010 discretionary budget request totals $24.0 billion. In addition, DOJ is estimated to receive $2.9 billion in mandatory resources in FY 2010 for a total budget of $29.6 billion.Personnel
DOJís FY 2010 request includes 111,464 authorized positions (direct only), which is an increase of 3,977 positions over the FY 2009 level. The workforce is comprised of: Agents (over 26,000 or 23%); Attorneys (over 10,000 or 9%); Correctional Officers (over 19,000 or 17%); Intelligence Analysts (over 4,000 or 4%); and Other (over 50,000 or 47%). "Other" captures administrative, clerical, analysts, information technology specialists, legal services and security specialists.
|Financial Snapshot 2008|
|Clean Opinion on Financial Statements||Yes||Material Weaknesses||None|
|Timely Financial Reporting||Yes||Total Assets||$29,344|
|Improper Payment Rate||0.03%||Net Cost Operations||$26,548|