Prepared Statement of Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee
Hearing on Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Program
   
Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing.  

I appreciate the opportunity during National Police Week to highlight a program that has over the years saved so many lives.  One of those lives is that of one of our witnesses today.  I welcome both our witnesses.

For all its benefits, in years past, this program has been administered in a way that did not foster accountability, allowed skirting of program requirements, and reduced effectiveness.  

In 2012, I asked the Government Accountability Office to examine the operation of the program.    Following their investigation, they recommended that $27 million of undisbursed funds from grants whose terms had ended be deobligated.  They asked the Justice Department to make sure grant recipients understand that they could not satisfy the 50 percent match requirement of the Bulletproof Vest Partnership program – the match is what makes it a partnership – by using other federal funds as the basis for the match.  

GAO also proposed that the Justice Department do a better job to ensure that states and local governments that used Byrne/JAG funds for bullet proof vests adhere to the requirements of the grant program.  

GAO also made recommendations concerning the Department of Justice enforcing compliance with document retention requirements and the tracking of grant recipients’ use of the funds for stab-resistant vests.

Today, GAO has followed up on its earlier investigation and has concluded that the Department of Justice has implemented all of its recommendations.  GAO has sent me a letter outlining that compliance, which it has provided to you, Mr. Chairman, as well.  I ask consent that the GAO letter be included in the record.

GAO has found that the Justice Department has deobligated $31 million in undisbursed funds from grant awards whose terms have ended.  Some of these undisbursed funds dated back to 2002.  Additionally, the Justice Department has implemented a process to review all undisbursed bulletproof vest funds.  As a result, the Department of Justice has deobligated an additional $7.8 million from more than 3000 grants whose award terms have ended.  And the new process will ensure that the problem of undisbursed funds does not reemerge.  Deobligation promotes accountability in the use of grant funds and is vital to effective grant management.  I am glad to see that this has finally occurred.
    
GAO also has concluded that the Justice Department now better publicizes the requirement that grantees retain documentation of their vest purchases.  The grant application now requires applicants to certify their acknowledgement and acceptance of the requirement.  
The Department of Justice has also adopted GAO’s recommendation concerning tracking funds for stab-resistant vests.

More importantly, the Justice Department agreed with GAO’s advice that it ensure that JAG recipients who use those funds for the purchase of body armor comply with crucial – in fact, life-saving -- requirements of the Bulletproof Vest Partnership grant program.  States can use JAG funds as well as Bulletproof Vest Partnership grant funds to purchase body armor.  Previously, JAG did not require that grantees only purchase vests that comply with the standards of effectiveness that the National Institutes of Justice have established.  

Nor did JAG require that entities that used JAG funds for bullet proof vests have policies mandating that officers actually wear them.  Now, GAO reports that the agency has established requirements that JAG recipients certify that they have written mandatory use policies and that the body armor purchased complies with National Institutes of Justice standards.
    
The last of GAO’s recommendations was that the Bureau of Justice Assistance had not documented its procedures to ensure that JAG grantees complied with the requirement not to use JAG funds as the basis to satisfy the match requirement of any Bulletproof Vest Partnership grant funds they might also receive.  GAO has found that the Bureau of Justice Assistance has issued new guidance for staff to improve compliance with the requirement that JAG funds not be misused as matching funds.  
    
I consider the process of GAO investigating, making sound recommendations, and the Department of Justice adopting new practices to be a textbook example of how oversight is supposed to work to benefit the taxpayer and, in this case, police officers as well.  

I do encourage the National Institutes of Justice to issue soon the guidance and new standards that it led GAO in 2012 to believe would have been forthcoming by now.
    
Following up on GAO’s initial recommendations, I requested that when the Bulletproof Vest Partnership grant program was authorized, that the legislation incorporate provisions that reflected the benefit of the oversight.  

As a result, legislation to reauthorize this program now includes provisions that make all previously appropriated funds not expended by the end of fiscal 2015 be returned to the Treasury; that recipients of grants not use funds from another grant program to form the basis for satisfying the match requirement; that grantees adopt policies requiring patrol officers to wear bullet proof vests; and that authorization levels for the program be cut.  

I appreciate the Chairman’s backing for these efforts and I am pleased to support legislation to reauthorize this important program.  I also offer my help to pass the bill.  I think we can have a situation where we can have a short debate and move this bill forward if the Majority Leader brings it up for consideration.

I look forward to today’s hearing.

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