Federal grant programs / Department of Justice

Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program (16.050)

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$14.7 million
• Grant awards22
• Typical award$500,000
• Awarded in FY 2025$4.2 million
• Size rank1,400 of 1,823
• Type of assistanceGrant

Key findings

• It is the 1400th largest of 1,823 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 20 largest recipients received 98% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 9 states and territories.

What the program funds

Program goal(s) name: Improve public safety. Program goal(s) description: The goals of the program are: (1) implement collaborative partnerships to guide the enhanced response to both MP and UHR cases; and (2) establish or expand programs to improve the reporting, forensic processing, identification, and repatriation of both MP and UHR cases in the jurisdiction. Program objective(s) name: Support local districts in identifying MUHRs. Program objective(s) description: Administered by the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) BJA, the Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program provides funds to enable eligible entities to improve the reporting, transportation, forensic testing, and identification of MPs and UHRs, including migrants. This program furthers DOJ’s mission of increasing public safety by providing resources to locate and identify MPs and UHRs in the United States. The MUHR Program augments and complements the services available through OJP’s National Institute of Justice National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) Program. NamUs is a free, national, centralized repository and resource center for cases involving MPs, UHRs, and unclaimed persons. The MUHR Program fills a gap in the national field by providing federal resources directly to state and local jurisdictions. As a result, the MUHR Program helps jurisdictions become more self-sufficient in reducing their backlog of MPs and UHR cases.

From the federal Assistance Listing. Read the full listing on SAM.gov.

Open opportunities

• BJA FY 2026 Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program
  Open · Closes December 2, 2026 (25 days left) · up to $1.0 million

Rules from the program listing

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. Matching requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Award range and average, in the agency's words

Purpose Area 1: State-Wide Agencies - three (3) awards, award amount range: $500,000 to $1,000,000; Purpose Area 2: Counties and/or Units of Local Government - up to six (6) awards, award amount range $100,000 to $500,000; Purpose Area 3: Services to Assist Small, Rural, and/or Tribal Entities - one (1) award, award amount up to $1,000,000 that can provide services on a national scale. Due to limited resources and the potentially small volume of unidentified human remains cases, small, rural, and/or tribal entities (jurisdictions) may not have the staffing and general capabilities to fully implement a large-scale project. To that end, the intent of this purpose area is to ensure that their cases receive the critical resources to assist with resolution.

Quoted from the program's federal Assistance Listing. The notice of funding opportunity is the official source for each competition's rules.

Who usually wins

State and local governments received 70% of the money, colleges and universities 30%.

By state

5 states have a page for this program: those that received at least $1 million or 10 awards. They are Florida, Texas, California, Arizona and Virginia.

Award amounts are federal obligations reported to USAspending.gov for fiscal 2021 to 2025; see how our data works.