Justice Department Ends Outside Peer Review of Its Grant Awards, Saying Reviewers Lack 'Insight Into This Administration's Goals'

The Justice Department confirmed to CBS News on Aug. 18, 2026 that it will formally end, this fall, the peer review program that for decades has used independent outside experts to score and rank competitive grant applications at the Office of Justice Programs and the Office on Violence Against Women. A department spokesperson said peer review 'has become an increasingly inefficient and outdated process that outsources a core function of our grantmaking process to individuals outside the Department who may not have insight into this Administration's goals and priorities or a reason to pursue them,' and that bringing it in-house saves money. Program staff will conduct the reviews instead.

The competitive awards fund police agencies, victim services organizations for sexual assault, trafficking and domestic violence, and criminal justice research. Removing outside scorers concentrates the ranking in the same political chain that decides the awards. The program was modeled on the NIH review process.

OJP's staffing is down by several hundred employees and it is still finalizing fiscal 2025 grants while rolling out roughly $3 billion in new awards required by last year's budget law. A 2025 trial run with internal reviewers was described as chaotic before outside reviewers returned.