Rep. Summer Lee Leads Community Safety Caucus in Opposing Trump Administration Power Grab Over Federal Grants

Text of Letter (PDF)

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 14, 2026 - Today, Congresswoman Summer L. Lee (PA-12), Congresswoman LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), and Congressman Gabe Amo (RI-1), co-chairs of the Congressional Community Safety Caucus, announced that they led a public comment letter opposing a sweeping Trump administration proposal that would give political leadership greater power to withhold, suspend, alter, or terminate federal grants.

In a public comment letter submitted to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, the lawmakers warned that the proposed rule would create dangerous instability for nonprofits, local governments, and other federal grantees-particularly community violence intervention programs that depend on reliable funding, long-term planning, and strong partnerships to prevent violence and save lives.

The proposed changes would overhaul the Uniform Guidance, the government-wide rules governing federal grants, cooperative agreements, and other financial awards. Among other provisions, the proposal would:

• Give political leadership greater authority over federal funding decisions;
• Make it easier for agencies to suspend or terminate grants;
• Allow grant terms and conditions to be changed after work has already begun;
• Weaken protections and appeal options available to organizations facing funding disruptions; and
• Restrict certain publication, conference, training, and travel expenses without advance approval.

For community violence intervention programs, those changes could threaten the stability of the entire violence prevention workforce. Organizations may struggle to retain outreach workers, violence interrupters, hospital responders, case managers, and other trusted frontline professionals if federal support becomes vulnerable to abrupt political interference.

The restrictions could also make it more difficult for practitioners to participate in training, share research, evaluate programs, and learn from successful violence prevention efforts in other communities.

"The proposed changes pose a significant financial risk and could create instability for federal grantees, including nonprofits, making it more difficult for them to serve their communities," the lawmakers wrote. "The changes would be particularly damaging for community violence intervention (CVI) programs that depend on stable funding, long-term planning, and cross-sector partnerships."

The letter points to falling rates of violence in communities that have made sustained investments in prevention. Baltimore recently reached a historic low in homicides following the implementation of its Comprehensive Violence Prevention Plan. Chicago experienced a 21 percent decline in overall violent crime, a 32 percent decline in homicides, and a 37 percent decline in shootings in 2025-progress driven in significant part by community violence intervention programs.

"The reduction in crime across the country is not an accident; instead, it is due to local governments and community leaders investing in and implementing strategies that work, such as CVI programs," the lawmakers wrote.

The lawmakers also raised concerns about the administration's previous cuts to the Department of Justice's Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative, the primary source of federal funding for CVI programs. Approximately half of the initiative's funding was cut in April 2025, including $145 million supporting programs, training, and technical assistance and another $8.6 million supporting research and evaluation.

Those cuts forced organizations across the country to reduce services, eliminate staff positions, and, in some cases, close entirely.

The letter urges OMB to withdraw the proposed Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance in full.

A copy of the letter can be found HERE.

About the Community Safety Caucus

The Congressional Community Safety Caucus advances a multidisciplinary, public-health approach to safety that stops violence and harm before they occur while providing caring and equitable responses to behavioral health and other crises.

The Caucus recognizes that genuine safety requires much more than just responding after harm has already occurred. It requires sustained investments in housing, health care, education, environmental justice, violence prevention, behavioral health, economic opportunity, and the overall wellbeing of communities.

Through legislative and appropriations advocacy, research, and educational programming, the Caucus champions evidence-based approaches that prevent violence, break cycles of harm, respond to crises with care, and help every community thrive.

Alongside Rep. Summer Lee (PA-12), the Community Safety Caucus was founded and is co-chaired by Gabe Amo (RI-01), Hank Johnson (GA-04), Morgan McGarvey (KY-03), LaMonica McIver (NJ-10), and Delia Ramirez (IL-03).

Additional members of the Caucus include Representatives Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Troy Carter (LA-02), Judy Chu (CA-28), Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05), Steven Horsford (NV-04), Bobby Scott (VA-03), and Lateefah Simon (CA-12).

Congresswoman Summer Lee serves on the House Committee on Judiciary and the Committee on Education and Workforce. Since taking office in January 2023, shehas delivered historic levels of federal investment totaling over $2.7 Billion brought back to Western PA, including over $580 million for infrastructure, over $110 million for affordable transit, over $500 million to keep clean energy manufacturing at home in Pennsylvania, and over $55 million on clean energy efforts in and around schools to help keep our kids and communities safe. These investments will help improve Western Pennsylvania's infrastructure and transit, ensure cleaner air and drinking water, lower housing costs, fund research institutions, fuel clean manufacturing, fund STEM innovation and entrepreneurship, boost workforce development, and create thousands of good paying union jobs.  Lee and her team have also delivered casework and constituent services to over 4,000 constituents with issues ranging from helping our seniors and disabled community access Medicare and social security to helping folks secure housing and helping families with immigration support and passports.