Waste of the Day: DOJ Did Not Claw Back Grants

Topline: The Department of Justice had $77.5 million worth of expired grant funds sitting in bank accounts and unavailable for use as of Sept. 30, 2025, according to two recent audits by the agency’s inspector general. Most of the money was from the Office on Violence Against Women, meant to support victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. 

The DOJ failed to rescind unspent grants

Key facts: When the federal government gives a grant to a nonprofit, it first “obligates” the money by setting it aside in a bank account. It often takes months or years for the nonprofit to actually spend the money. If the nonprofit doesn’t use the money by a set deadline, the government is supposed to rescind it.

Instead, the Department of Justice let 695 grants pass their deadline by two years or more without rescinding the money. Rather than taking the money and awarding new grants to nonprofits that will actually use it, it remains unspent.

Thirty-six of the grants worth $4.3 million have been expired for five years or more. At least one expired nine years ago.

The Office on Violence Against Women was responsible for 589 of the grants, though the issues with 139 of them had been fixed as of this May. 

They told auditors they are struggling due to “technical system issues” and staff retirements. The office has 13 employees working on grant administration, but only two of them focus on closing out expired grants.

Only the DOJ has failed to act

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com. 

Background: The Department of Justice is far from the only federal agency that has not clawed back its expired grant awards. During hurricane season in 2024, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had $8.6 billion tied up and unavailable for victims of that year’s storms.

Agencies must disclose how much money is in expired grant accounts each year, but today’s reporting is less transparent than in the past. The 2016 Grants Oversight and New Efficiency Act required agencies to publish a detailed list of all their expired grants with funding that had not yet been rescinded. But for 2026 and the last several years, agencies have only been required to publish a “brief high-level summary” of the grants.

Summary: Until the federal government strengthens its oversight of expired grant accounts, huge amounts of taxpayer money will continue to be tied up and unavailable for recipients that could truly benefit from it.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.