Acting on recommendations from the Department of Government Efficiency, the Justice Department is cutting grants to hundreds of programs across the country that provided services to crime victims, according to a former DOJ official familiar with the matter and documents obtained by NBC News.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has reversed some of the cuts, the former official and a current Justice Department official said. One restored cut was for a program that provided funds to domestic violence shelters so that they can accommodate the pets of victims.
The current Justice Department official noted that Bondi “has been an advocate for victims of crimes against women and for animals her entire career.”
Jennifer Pollitt Hill, a spokeswoman for the Mland Network Against Domestic Violence, said in an email to NBC News that the group received a cancellation notice for one of its grants, “and then 24 hours later we got an email saying that the termination notice was rescinded and our grant is still active.” She added, “I have no idea what changed, but we are grateful. All I can say is chaos, confusion and whiplash!”
Staffers at Safe Futures in New London, Connecticut, which runs a domestic violence shelter and other services, were also surprised when they got a termination notice by email on Tuesday evening at 5:30 pm, followed by a reversal Wednesday evening just after 7 pm in an email that read, “Please be advised that the grant award will not be terminated,” according to Margaret Soussloff, the chief operating officer.
Soussloff said the money allows the shelter to take in domestic violence victims who have pets, which they consider to be part of victims’ families.
The current Justice Department official said the grants “were meticulously reviewed to ensure that services to victims would not be impacted.” The official added, “If any group can prove the opposite, we allowed a 30-day appeal window and the money can be turned back on if direct impact to victims can be thoroughly established.”
It wasn’t immediately clear how a “meticulous review” was consistent with grant cuts being reversed within 24 hours.
In a post on X, Bondi announced the that the Justice Department “has started cutting millions of dollars in wasteful grants.”
