25-04-2025
US justice dept grant cuts valued at $811m, people and records say
Activating Change, a nonprofit that supports domestic violence victims with disabilities, lost five federal grants totaling more than $2m (R37.6m), said executive director Nancy Smith.
One of those paid for American sign language interpretation services for domestic violence victims, while another trains police on how to investigate trafficking crimes against people with disabilities.
Another recipient that lost funding is the central Iowa trauma recovery centre, which received support from Republican senator Charles Grassley.
Other types of canceled grants funded programmes from criminal justice research to efforts to help reduce recidivism and support people after they leave prison.
A justice department official said on Thursday night the grant to the Iowa-based trauma recovery centre was being restored, but the department would not restore the grants to Activating Change because of its affiliation with the Vera Institute of Justice.
The Vera Institute of Justice, an independent nonprofit, was recently targeted by billionaire Elon Musk's department of government efficiency as part of its cost-cutting effort.
"The justice department's reckless cuts to their federal grants endanger the victims' safety," the Vera Institute of Justice told Reuters in a statement.
"It is unconscionable that this administration would put partisan politics over the wellbeing of victims of crime," the group said.
Smith said in a statement that terminating her group's grants represented a "political act".
"This punishes deaf and disabled survivors, silences marginalised voices, and dismantles vital support for those facing the greatest barriers to safety and healing," she said.
Of the $811m in total cuts, about $71m (R1.3bn) comes from grants offered by the office for victims of crime, according to a spreadsheet of the grants seen by Reuters.
The justice department cut roughly $535m (R10bn) to programmes from the bureau of justice assistance, which funds programmes to support many local police departments and correctional facilities, the data shows.
The federal agency cut about $136m (R2.5bn) from the office of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention, and terminated nearly $59m (R1.1bn) in research grants funded by the national institute of justice.
Reuters
