Earlier this week, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the President’s FY 2011 budget request includes a staggering $29.2B for the Justice Department, an increase over the actual FY 2010 budget appropriation of $1.5B in funding and 2,880 positions.

Aside from counter-terrorism, one of the leading budget priorities for the Justice Department is substantially increased funding to prevent, investigate and prosecute a diverse array of economic crimes, including financial fraud, mortgage fraud, health care fraud, securities and commodities fraud, procurement and grant fraud, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and also fraud in connection with the receipt and use of federal stimulus funding. The FY 2011 budget request includes an additional $234.6M to support these specific enforcement priorities, including 708 new positions within the Justice Department (criminal prosecutors, civil litigators and FBI agents).