Newsweek: Former Assistant AG Says Local Nonprofit Workers Are Public Safety Heroes Too

By Amy L. Solomon

Senior Fellow, Council on Criminal Justice

It’s been one month since the Department of Justices ended 373 grants worth $820 million in federal support for a wide range of state and local public safety programs. Now, the ripple effects are coming into focus—and the full reach of the cuts is far broader than initially thought.

With the mass termination of DOJ funding, more than 200 grant recipients in 37 states lost federal funding overnight. But so did hundreds of other partner organizations, which were slated to receive “subgrant” support to collaborate with direct grant recipients on a broad range of projects.

A new Council on Criminal Justice analysis finds that altogether, the funding cuts hit an estimated 554 nonprofits, government agencies, and other public safety institutions across 48 states and territories. This means that more than twice as many organizations were affected by the cuts than originally believed. The vast majority of terminated funds—more than 93 percent, or about $769 million—supported nonprofit organizations.