3-28-24 | Kiersten Stewart, Vice President of Public Policy and Advocacy
President Biden released his budget on March 11 officially launching the process for Fiscal Year ‘25 appropriations. The President’s ‘25 budget provides an important insight into the priorities of the White House. It includes ambitious new initiatives that reflect his commitment to preventing violence and abuse and helping those who have been harmed by violence to heal.
At the same time, we know that Congress has agreed to constrain overall spending this year and next, so while we are appreciative of the commitment made by the Administration, we understand some funding levels are more modest than we would have liked.
Key elements of the budget that we support include:
More than $1 billion to fund programs to address domestic and sexual violence in U.S.
Since 2021, funding for the Violence Against Women Act has increased by more than a third. This year’s budget includes a $100 million dollar increase to $800 million annually.
Funding priorities identified in the budget include:
- Sexual assault services
- Transitional housing
- Legal assistance for survivors.
- Increases to children and youth program
- Record commitments to funding Tribes and underserved and culturally specific communities
- $10 million for a new special initiative to address Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP)
- Continued a new line of funding for restorative practices
- Funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development that could result in an additional 20,000 vouchers, some specifically targeting domestic violence survivors
Funding for the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act, which funds local, domestic violence agencies as well as training and technical assistance and a specialized program for children exposed to domestic violence, was level funded at approximately $240 million.
Funding for children increases in key areas
The Budget also proposes to increase funding for the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program to $300 million annually. This is part of FUTURES’ priority to prevent unnecessary child welfare system involvement and help families get the help they need.
This program funds:
- Services for families to help prevent maltreatment and keep children from being unnecessarily brought into the child welfare system
- Funding to increase access to legal services for children and families involved in the child welfare system
Funding for youth mental health
FUTURES also was pleased to see major investments in youth mental health and the continuation of the Children Exposed to Violence program at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which would receive $10 million. Several youth mental health accounts at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration received big boosts with increases totaling more than $250 million for suicide prevention and mobile crisis services, Project AWARE, and a new behavioral health workforce program.
Community violence intervention gets big boost
The budget also makes a major investment in addressing community violence through prevention and intervention services that are rooted in community and based on solid evidence of effectiveness. It calls for $2.5 billion in discretionary and mandatory funding over 10 years at the CDC and an additional $2.5 billion in discretionary and mandatory funds over 10 years for the Department of Justice.
Funding for gender-based violence and violence against children globally stays steady
The budget held largely steady for programs addressing gender equality internationally, with the Administration requesting approximately $3.1 billion across all programs, and continuing to make funds available to address gender-based violence specifically. This number remains lower than requested but FUTURES has helped build a strong and effective international gender-based violence coalition that will be pushing for more than $400 million to be set aside specifically for GBV globally. The President’s budget requests $30 million to support assistance for the care and protection of vulnerable children globally which is close to the $35 million called for by the ending violence against children community.
However, we are calling for more than the $7.5 Million requested for Child Compacts. These compacts are multi-year commitments between the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (JTIP) and partner governments to bolster efforts to combat forced child labor and sex trafficking. This amount is about half of what the ending violence against children community has requested and needs to be bolstered to respond to child trafficking, which continues to grow.
FUTURES will continue to provide periodic updates on funding to address gender-based violence and violence against children and hope you will check back periodically for information and updates.
