By Peter Eisler and Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department has canceled hundreds of ongoing grants that funded everything from services for mental health care for police officers to support programs for victims of crime and sexual assault, according to internal records and four people familiar with the matter.
At least 365 grants from the Office of Justice Programs, the department’s largest grant-making arm, were terminated late on Tuesday, said two of the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss details that have not been made public.
In fiscal year 2023, that office collectively awarded $4.4 billion in funding, according to the Justice Department’s website.
Among the programs that are being targeted include grants that supported victims of crime, including some specialized for transgender victims, hotlines used by crime victims, human trafficking grants awarded to organizations that work with immigrants and refugees, programs to curb juvenile delinquency and safeguard incarcerated youth, and funding to help state-run hate crime reporting, according to a partial list of terminated grants seen by Reuters.
Jean Bruggeman, who leads the non-profit Freedom Network USA which assists human trafficking victims, said abruptly canceling funding without warning could leave vulnerable victims of domestic abuse out on the streets without access to housing.
“We know that with domestic violence, it’s when survivors leave that the risk of mortality is the highest,” she said.
“We’ve told them you can trust us. We will protect you. Come forward. We will help you and protect you. And now, the government is saying thanks for coming forward. You’re on your own. We don’t care if you live or die.”
The Justice Department could not immediately be reached for a request for comment about criticisms of the cancellation and its impact on victims.
CHANGE IN PRIORITIES
Justice Department grants typically run for three years. It is not unusual for a new administration to award different sorts of grants reflecting its priorities, but it is unusual for the department to cut off funding on previously awarded grants that support ongoing programs.
In an email sent to Office of Justice Programs staff on Tuesday, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Maureen Henneberg said that canceled grants “no longer support the department’s priorities.”
She added that the new funding priorities will focus on “certain law enforcement operations, combating violent crime, protecting American children, supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault, and promoting coordination of law enforcement efforts at all levels of government.”
A Justice Department spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.
Reuters could not immediately determine a total dollar value for the canceled grants, though records indicate the cuts at a minimum total of millions of dollars.
Some of the grants that were terminated are not funded by taxpayers, and instead are paid for through fines and penalties collected by the government from convicted felons.
Many Justice Department’s employees who work on managing and awarding the grants did not learn about the cancellations until the grantees were notified on Tuesday, the people said.
The department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, a separate grant-making office, has so far not been hit, one person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear whether the Office of Violence Against Women, a third separate Justice Department grant-making office, was affected.
Justice Department leadership is mulling whether to merge all of the grant-making offices into the Office of Justice Programs to follow President Donald Trump’s executive order to cut costs.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Peter Eisler; Editing by Scott Malone and Aurora Ellis)
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