The antitrust division is also funded by fees collected from pre-merger notifications, which are split equally between DOJ and its sister agency, the Federal Trade Commission. The proposal estimates a total budget authority of $189 million between the appropriations and the merger fees, a 13.1 increase from this year’s $167 million.

The proposed increase comes as the Justice Department is conducting an inquiry into technology markets that has so far focused on Google and Facebook. Attorney General William Barr has said the probe is “a top priority” for DOJ, which is also working with state attorneys general to examine conduct and prior acquisitions by the companies.

The antitrust division’s headcount has fallen since the beginning of the Trump administration as staff left the agency but weren’t replaced because of a hiring freeze.

Justice officials said the antitrust division’s authorized staffing would jump by 87 positions to 782 under the proposed budget. Current staffing is about 600, with almost 100 positions unfilled at the moment.

About 55 of the newly requested positions will be for attorneys, split among civil and criminal enforcement, as well as formal merger reviews, Justice officials said. One focus of the new lawyers, paralegals and economists would be the department’s ongoing examination of internet and social media companies, although officials declined to say precisely how many.

DOJ officials have said they intend to hire more staff both in D.C. and San Francisco to work on the tech probes.

The proposed funding increase is “quite dramatic,” said one former DOJ antitrust official who requested anonymity to be able to speak candidly about the proposal. He said it shows that the department is probably gearing up in case of litigation with the tech platforms.

Most of the agency’s resources tend to be devoted to pending mergers since those have specific timelines for review, said Maureen Ohlhausen, a partner at Baker Botts.

Greater funding “would allow them to review a wider scope, such as non-reportable deals or consummated mergers,” said Ohlhausen, who served as acting chairman of the FTC during the beginning of the Trump administration. “Conduct investigations also can be resource-intensive, so more money again gives the ability to look more widely.”

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The funding bump could also help pay for economic and technical experts, which are particularly important in cases that go to litigation, said Charlotte Slaiman, senior policy counsel at Public Knowledge. While a more traditional antitrust case might need one economist, more complicated ones may need several to testify on different aspects of a market, she said.

Additional funding for experts "would be really useful for the big tech investigations," said Slaiman, who worked as a trial attorney at the FTC including on a recent case over 1-800 Contacts’ online ads. "Economic experts are a really expensive part of any antitrust litigation."

Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim has made a priority of the antitrust division’s amicus program, in which DOJ weighs in on private antitrust cases pending in lower courts. Additional funds could help pay for similar advocacy work, Ohlhausen said.

In contrast to the Justice Department, the FTC asked for $181 million in appropriations, a slight increase from its request for the previous fiscal year. That amount would keep its total funding flat at about $330 million, accounting for an expected decrease in the amount of fees the agency collects from merger filings and the National Do Not Call registry.

The agency saw an $21 million bump in its appropriations this fiscal year compared with fiscal 2019.

The FTC said it would devote $144 million, with 528 full-time staff equivalents, of its total funding to its antitrust mission. The remaining funds would go toward consumer protection, including privacy and data security enforcement.

Demcratic FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter dissented from the agency’s budget request, saying more money is needed for the FTC’s antitrust and consumer protection work.

“I believe the president’s budget does not accurately reflect the funding the FTC needs to protect consumers and promote competition,” Slaughter said in a statement.

Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.