Attorney General Pam Bondi previously bragged about cuts to programs supporting victims of violent crime. Now, some have been reversed following a Mother Jones report.Aaron Schwartz/Sipa/AP
The Department of Justice has restored two previously canceled grants supporting victims of violent crimes, including domestic violence, following a Mother Jones report on Thursday that highlighted the critical roles the programs played for survivors.
The DOJ informed the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) and the National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC) on Thursday night that officials would restore the grants they previously canceled on Tuesday. Those cancelations were reportedly part of mass cuts to grants worth more than $800 million, according to Reuters, that supported victims of gun violence, addiction, and domestic violence. The terminations came as especially ironic in light of President Donald Trump’s campaign trail pledge to “protect women” if re-elected and to offer “unending support to every victim of crime” per a proclamation he issued for National Crime Victims’ Rights Week earlier this month.
Mother Jones was the only news outlet to report on the NNEDV grant cancelation, which supports an email hotline that offers personalized legal information for survivors in English and Spanish. The canceled, and since-restored, $2 million, three-year grant was intended to “increase awareness of and enhance access to its Spanish email hotline services.” On Tuesday, NNEDV officials learned that the remainder of the grant, about a half million dollars, was cut. A spokesperson previously said that while the NNEDV hoped to keep the services going with alternative funding, they would wind up being “drastically reduced.”
In a statement provided to Mother Jones on Friday, Stephanie Love-Patterson, the organization’s president and CEO, said that while officials are “relieved and appreciative” that the grant cancelation was reversed, “the concerns and heartache remain, as this highlights the vulnerable state of services for survivors, which will affect those who need them most.”
As I reported yesterday, advocates and lawmakers are also concerned that further cuts could be coming from the Office of Violence Against Women at the DOJ, which scrubbed funding opportunities from its website in February. The latest reversals follow restorations of other canceled grants to shelters that support survivors’ pets, as I previously reported.
Mother Jones was one of several news outlets that reported on the NCVC grant cancelations on Thursday, which were also reversed. The restored grants include one that supported its VictimConnect Resource Center, a helpline that provides emotional and logistical support to survivors; a spokesperson for NCVC said Thursday that the helpline would indefinitely shutter Friday at 5 p.m. EST as a result of the cancelation of the $2.8 million grant. Another grant, which supported programs for crime victims around the country, was also restored, according to an NCVC spokesperson. A third canceled grant, used to create a resource guide for lawmakers and advocates who want to observe the annual National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, was not restored, the spokesperson added.
“We’re celebrating at NCVC today, but the reality is that our partners in the field, all of whom also provide vital victim services all around the United States are still facing a funding crisis,” Renée Williams, NCVC CEO, said in a statement Friday. “There are thousands of great people in our country who have dedicated their careers to ensuring that victims don’t have to find justice alone. As a society, we owe it to victims and providers to make sure those services remain available.”
Spokespeople for the DOJ did not immediately respond to questions Friday morning.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, who previously bragged about the mass cuts in a post on X, calling the canceled grants “wasteful,” was noticeably silent about the about-face on Friday.
