Methodology & source manifest
Everything on the Department of Justice monitor derives from public records — the DOJ FY2027 Budget & Performance Summary, supporting DOJ/CRS budget documents, OMB's Historical Tables, the USAspending API, and reachable DOJ OIG and GAO oversight documents. This page is the audit trail: method, sources, validation, and every flag.
Method
Discretionary vs. the mandatory special funds
DOJ is mostly discretionary law enforcement (FBI, DEA, ATF, BOP, USMS, the U.S. Attorneys) plus discretionary grants (OJP/COPS/OVW). This monitor leads with the appropriated discretionary budget — the published Total Discretionary BA with Fees — and keeps the mandatory special funds strictly separate. The Crime Victims Fund is surfaced as its annual OBLIGATION CAP, not its balance: the fund is financed by criminal fines, forfeited bonds, and post-2021 deferred/non-prosecution-agreement penalties, but only the capped amount Congress sets in appropriations may be obligated for VOCA victim grants each year. The Assets Forfeiture Fund is permanent-indefinite mandatory authority from forfeiture proceeds. Neither is folded into the discretionary headline.
The build-down reconciliation
The DOJ Discretionary Budget Authority table builds from the Federal-Programs categories (law enforcement, prisons & detention, litigation, immigration courts, admin) less Federal Program Rescissions, plus the State and Local Grants programs, to a Total Discretionary BA without Fees, then less the ATR/USTP fee offsets to the Total Discretionary BA with Fees. This monitor asserts that the keyed category rows, the rescissions, the grants, and the fee offsets sum — to the dollar, per fiscal year — to the published total. Anything that fails to reconcile is flagged below, not shipped silently.
Source documents & validation ledger
The history layer is shown in nominal dollars only — OMB Historical Table 5.2 publishes no constant-dollar basis, and no deflator is synthesized. The DOJ row in this table begins FY1976; DOJ itself dates to 1870, but pre-1976 back-years do not exist in this source and are not fabricated. The Crime Victims Fund obligation cap and the Assets Forfeiture Fund are carried in their own mandatory frame, never inside the discretionary headline.