FY 2009 Appropriation and New Grants

On March 11, 2009, the President signed into law the FY 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act (P.L. 111-8), which provided $4,100,000 for SJI. This is an increase of $340,000 over FY 2008, and marks the second fiscal year in a row that SJI has received an increased budget from Congress. The Omnibus Bill also increased the available funding for SJI’s Strategic Initiatives Grants program to $500,000. This will allow SJI to expand the program to address other critical issues facing the state courts. SJI greatly appreciates the continued support from Congress.

Once SJI’s final appropriation was signed into law, SJI immediately awarded $375,566 in grants from the 1st quarter that had been on hold pending the final budget. Awarded grants included a Project Grant to support a California Judicial Administration Graduate Program. This program will help the California judiciary attract and retain employee-students who have the potential to become highly educated judicial administrators. Four (4) TA applications were awarded, including a child maltreatment caseflow project for the Superior Court of Maricopa County, Arizona; a re-engineering project to support the Vermont Judiciary in light of severe budget cuts across the courts in that state; and a strategic planning initiative for the Superior Court of San Luis Obispo County, California. SJI also entered into a Partner Grant with the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to examine inter-branch relations and the effectiveness and efficiency of criminal justice policy.