1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

I am a constituent writing from Bowling Green, Ohio and am the president of the Board of Directors of The Cocoon, and I am writing to express deep concern about the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) termination of previously awarded and fully appropriated Office of Justice Programs (OJP) grants and cooperative agreements. This action is unprecedented, destabilizing, and poses an immediate threat to victim services, public safety initiatives, and survivor-centered training and research programs nationwide. Congress must demand that the DOJ immediately reinstate all previously awarded OJP grants and refrain from terminating grants in any other agencies!  Victims and survivors will have nowhere to turn in their hour of need - nowhere to seek refuge from abusive partners, nowhere to get a sexual assault forensic exam, nowhere to get help navigating complicated legal systems. Programs mobilizing communities to prevent violence will be shuttered. Law enforcement and prosecutors will lose access to essential training and expertise that help them investigate and prosecute domestic violence, sexual assault, gun violence, hate crimes, and more. In our own community, this will mean we must turn away hundreds of victims annually and we will have to eliminate our legal advocacy and housing assistance programs. These cuts will have a disproportionate impact on survivors who already experience the highest rates of violence and homicide—and already face significant barriers to accessing safety and justice. I respectfully urge Congress to do the following: • Demand that DOJ reinstate all terminated OJP grants and refrain from terminating awards from other agencies, including the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). • Insist that DOJ post all FY25 grant solicitations for both OJP and OVW programs without further delay.  • Emphasize to the Department of Justice that, according to federal law, the Office on Violence Against Women must remain an independent office and not be subsumed under any other entity.  • Conduct ongoing and rigorous oversight of DOJ to ensure transparency and stability in grantmaking, to ensure victims have access to critical services, and to promote the DOJ’s core mission to enhance public safety - not undermine it. It’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and we just observed Crime Victims Rights Week–Congress needs to stand with victims and survivors today and everyday. Thank you for your leadership and for standing with survivors and communities.