In an unprecedented move, the Department of Justice has canceled more than $810 million in grants already awarded in recent years. Last week’s abrupt cuts to at least 365 grants affect a large swath of anti-crime programs run by nonprofit organizations, often in collaboration with state and local government agencies, such as local law enforcement.
These funds filled critical gaps in our public safety infrastructure. They supported victims of crime, trained law enforcement, offered treatment to people with behavioral health and substance issues, and helped people reintegrate into society after incarceration. They also promoted research used to create and guide effective policies. Many if not all were ended immediately and without warning, in the middle of a typical 3-year grant period, disrupting programs and creating financial strain for nonprofits. There is a 30-day period for appeal, but the prospects for success are uncertain.
The Justice Department claimed that the funding did not align with administration priorities such as “more directly supporting certain law enforcement operations, combatting violent crime, protecting American children, and supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault, and better coordinating law enforcement efforts.” But many of the grants advanced exactly those objectives, as well as others that have long garnered bipartisan support — including from the first Trump administration. The slashed programs have been proven to make communities safer, and their end will in fact imperil public safety, not promote it.
Among the organizations that suddenly lost substantial funding are a group that connects victims with support services and one that helps police and prosecutors pursue hate crimes.
Other affected projects partner with law enforcement to direct people with mental health and substance use disorders to treatment rather than jail, and they provide assistance with housing, employment, and treatment to people leaving prison. These programs improve the likelihood of successful reentry rather than perpetuating cycles of arrest and reincarceration.
The DOJ also gutted work that was essential to implementing the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which Congress passed unanimously in 2003. The initiative that was cut has provided resources such as trainings and investigative support to states and counties, in partnership with the Justice Department itself, to address prison sexual assaults.
Funding was also cut to a group that — also in collaboration with the DOJ — provides training and technical assistance to local organizations and police departments for community violence intervention programs. Those funds were allocated through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, introduced in 2022 by then-Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL). As one expert observed, such cuts to violence prevention efforts directly threaten the progress made in reducing violent crime across the country in recent years.
While every new administration identifies its own grantmaking priorities, they rarely terminate existing grants midstream. Indeed, doing so ends up wasting taxpayer money that has already been spent. Organizations that receive these multi-year grants make program and hiring plans that rely on the federal funding. With these abrupt terminations, the Justice Department has now injected a new element of arbitrariness and partisanship into the process. It has also undermined its role as both leader and trusted partner in promoting policies that will make our criminal justice system more fair, fiscally responsible, and effective.
Perhaps reflecting the reckless decision-making that led to these cuts, the DOJ reversed a handful of them the next day, such as some that support crime victims. But this limited turnabout will do little to repair the damage that was done to an array of programs that have been critical to law enforcement and public safety for years.
If the Justice Department wants to truly prioritize supporting law enforcement, helping victims, fighting crime, protecting children, combating trafficking, and reducing recidivism, it will promptly reinstate these grants — and continue to invest in these and similar initiatives in the future.
