Public Safety Impacts in Trump’s Proposed Budget Cuts

WASHINGTON (05-06) – Sounding the alarm for how public safety would be compromised by President Trump’s proposed budget cuts for 2025, the ACLU is sponsoring a series of events this week titled “Safety Week on Capitol Hill.” Noting that critical public safety programs — from domestic violence prevention to mental health and substance abuse services — would all be impacted across the country if the budget passes.

The group’s objective is in becoming visible by proclaiming, “public safety programs save lives — we must protect them.” They are calling on Congress to stand up to President Trump’s budget cuts and the fact that the programs are “our first line of defense against violence, crisis, and instability in our communities.”

Congresswoman Watson Coleman (D-NJ) opened a press conference on May 7 by stating that the current administration “has decided that the safety of our families, our friends, and our neighbors is not their priority.” She went on to note, too, that the Trump administration has cancelled nearly one billion dollars of Congressionally authorized spending programs that keep our communities safe.

By their actions the current administration has blocked funds for opioid overdose prevention, domestic violence and sexual assault victims and human trafficking. Additionally, they have blocked funds for hate crime prevention programs and to treat mental illness. “They have made our communities less safe,” she said.

“As a member of Congress, I want to express my outrage that this administration thinks that it has the authority to pocket the money that we lawfully appropriated for the purpose of helping people that need help.” Repeating “Congress” three times, she went on to say that “Congress has the power of the purse. The people elected us. We passed a law that determined government spending and then the government disbursed that money. I would really appreciate it if the Trump administration would get out of our way and follow the law.” She closed by calling on the administration to release the Congressionally authorized funding support a safe, secure and healthy life for all.”

Oni Blair, Executive Director of the ACLU in Texas, said that she wants to live with her family and children in a safe community and that “safe communities do not start with handcuffs and jail cells” but rather starts with “making sure people have what they need to live stable lives. And right now, that safety is under threat.” She charged the present administration with “pouring tax dollars into mass deportations that bypass due process that tear families apart,” noting that community safety programs are “not partisan, they work.”

She went on to explain some of the impacts that Houston alone has seen with 500 truckloads of food being cut from being distributed across 17 counties along with the defunding and cuts to programs that had mental health professionals assist police along with the loss of the first violence interruption program in the community. “The safest communities are the ones with the most opportunities and not with the most police departments and jails.”

Jess Eddy is CEO and cofounder of LiveFree OKC, a community non-profit violence reduction intervention program in Oklahoma City which had its $2 million federal grant from the Department of Justice terminated in what he described as the “reddest state in a conservative city.” The program, he said, had received support from all political persuasions.

Eddy went on to tell of a mass shooting last night in Oklahoma City that took place in a sports bar during a basketball game leaving seven people injured with gunshot wounds, the impact of which he characterized as “leaving no one with a sense of safety.” He lamented that “Gun intervention programs have dropped homicide rates in major cities throughout this country by as much as fifty percent. Yet now it is caught up in partisan politics.”

Elis Johnson, VP of Criminal Justice Campaigns, reminded everyone that “In this moment when so many critical investments that actually do make our communities safer and stronger are being cut, we share the urgency of everyone here to protect these essential programs and to see their funding restored.”

Liz Roberts, CEO of Safe Horizon, a victim of violence services agency, “envisions a society free of violence and abuse” and that her organization lead by empowering victims and survivors to find safety, support, connection, and hope.”

Roberts said that Safe Horizon survives on federal funding in assisting victims of violence at the community level and that “Our clear and urgent message to everyone involved is that cuts to our funding are not just a question of policy, they are a question of life or death.” She stressed how the loss of funding will negatively impact the safety and healing of victims of violence. “With violence, abuse and exploitation happening in every neighborhood and every demographic,” one in every three Americans is a survivor. She opined “safety is a human right.”

With statistics like these, the proposed budget cuts are offering a bleak future for all Americans to live in healthy and safe neighborhoods and cities, but not in Making America Great Again.

At the conclusion of the press conference, many of the activists went in person to visit Congress members’ offices to convey their urgent calls to support maintaining adequate funding for these vital public health and safety programs for all Americans.

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

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