The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) is a grant-making agency in the U.S. Department of Justice. Under §903 of Title IX of the United States Department of Justice Reauthorization and Violence Against Women Act of 2005 (VAWA 2005), OVW is responsible for conducting annual government-to-government consultations with the leaders of all federally recognized Indian Tribal governments on behalf of the United States Attorney General.

The purpose of each consultation is to solicit recommendations from Tribal government leaders on the following topics:

• Administering Tribal funds and programs;

• Enhancing the safety of Indian women from domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, homicide, stalking, and sex trafficking;

• Strengthening the federal response to such crimes, and;

• Improving access to local, regional, state, and federal crime information databases and criminal justice information systems.

DOJ Tribal Consultation: Consolidation of COPS, OJP, and OVW: Aug 5–6, 2026

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is hosting a virtual, government-to-government consultation for Tribal Leaders regarding its plan to consolidate the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), and the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) into a single entity called the Bureau of Justice Grants. Access the Dear Tribal Leader Letter, Framing Paper, and additional information about the Consultation here.

Please submit written comments to OTJ@usdoj.gov by September 4. NCAI has prepared a Summary for Tribal Leaders and Talking Points to assist in preparing written comments.

Comments may also be submitted via mail to: Office of Tribal Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C., 20530-0001

DOJ Consultation Information Summary for Tribal Leaders Talking Points

Past Consultation Materials

2025 OVW Violence Against Women Tribal Consultation

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and its Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) 20th Annual Government-to-Government Violence Against Women Tribal Consultation, originally scheduled for October 28-30, 2025, was postponed to January 21–23, 2026. NCAI held a Pre-Consultation Caucus on Tuesday, January 20, 2026. Below are related materials released in preparation for the consultation.

• NCAI's OVW Tribal Consultation Preparation Webinar Slide Deck

• Dear Tribal Leader Letter

• 2025 OVW Framing Paper

• 2024 NCAI VAW Written Consultation Testimony

• OVW 2024 Tribal Consultation Report

• 2025 DOJ Office of Tribal Justice Consultation Report

2023 VAW Consultation

The following documents are resources provided in the 2023 Update on the Status of Tribal Consultation Recommendations provided in advance of the Department of Justice Annual Government-to-Government Violence Against Women Tribal Consultation. Click here to access the full resource from the Office on Violence Against women.

• Summary of Consultation: DOJ provided a written summary of high-level themes from consultations held in July and August 2022.

• Alaska Pilot Program: DOJ issued for Tribal review a paper outlining a proposed framework for implementing the Alaska Pilot Program, reflecting input already received from Tribal leaders and advocates.

• STCJ Reimbursement Program: OVW issued an interim final rule for VAWA 2022’s STCJ Reimbursement Program, as required by section 804 of the Act, which takes into consideration Tribes' stated need for a reimbursement process.

• MMIP: On May 5, 2023, DOJ issued a press release describing efforts to address the crisis of missing or murdered indigenous persons.

• MMIP: DOJ released a comprehensive federal law enforcement strategy to prevent and respond to violence against AI/AN people, including to address missing or murdered indigenous persons where the federal government has jurisdiction

• MMIP Regional Outreach Program: In June 2023, DOJ announced the creation of the MMIP Regional Outreach Program, which dedicates five MMIP Assistant U.S. Attorneys and five MMIP coordinators to provide specialized support to United States Attorneys’ offices to address and combat the issues of MMIP.

• Tribal Access Program for National Crime Information: DOJ released a press release and further information on the 2023 expansion of the TAP program.

• Leveraging Funding with Tribal Affairs Division (TAD): OVW has taken steps to simplify the application process for Tribal-specific grant programs as well as increase award caps and project periods. TAD also updated and distributed the "Leveraging Funding Opportunities with TAD" video series with accompanying resource documents and worksheets.