Shaheen Joins Colleagues in Demanding DOJ Reverse Cancellation of Hundreds of Public Safety and Anti-Crime Grants

(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) joined 30 of her colleagues in sending a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) urging Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Maureen Henneberg to reverse the abrupt cancellation of hundreds of public safety grants that serve crime victims and improve public safety in communities across the country. The letter calls on DOJ to provide information about its decision to cancel the grants.

The Senators wrote, in part: “On April 22, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) notified hundreds of grant recipients across the country, without warning, that their funding had been terminated, effective immediately. Many of these grants are authorized by Congress and support programs that have enhanced public safety in communities rural and urban, affluent and poor, Democratic and Republican.”

The Senators continued: “As DOJ’s largest grantmaking component, OJP over the last several decades has supported crime victim assistance and compensation programs, juvenile justice and child protection activities, sex offender management efforts, criminal justice research, and crime statistics collection. These programs deliver critical resources to state, local, and community advocates who help people with addiction and protect kids, veterans, and victims of crime across the country.”

The Senators concluded: “Additionally, we advise that the Department restore immediately the grants terminated on April 22. The cursory termination of these programs imperils the public safety of the victims and communities that rely on these critical resources.”

The full text of the letter can be read here.

In her role as the former Chair of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittee, Shaheen led efforts to fund programs that increase public safety and support New Hampshire’s law enforcement agencies. In the Fiscal Year 2024 government funding legislation, Shaheen secured $23,212,000 in Congressionally Directed Spending to help build safe and prosperous communities and other priorities.

Shaheen also champions efforts in the Senate to boost services and programs for survivors of domestic and sexual violence. In the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 CJS Subcommittee Appropriations bill, Shaheen secured and helped advance $739.5 million, the highest funding level ever, for grants authorized by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

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