Take Action to Prevent Damaging Budget Cuts

Right now, Congress and the White House are beginning to negotiate FY24 funding, and some in Congress are advocating for very deep cuts in non-defense programs (often referred to as non-defense discretionary appropriations or simply “NDD”) for the next fiscal year and possibly beyond. Such cuts would impact many of the programs and funding important to our youth and families, including funding for the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA), assistance with housing and child care for low-income families, support for K-12 education and skills training, courts and reentry programs, public health, and much more. Please consider taking action by signing onto the letter below.

TAKE ACTION: NDD United, a coalition that was active a few years ago, has come together to organize a letter to support adequate funding for annually appropriated federal domestic and international programs. Sign-on is due on Friday, May 12th, and you can read the letter and sign-on here.

President’s Budget Proposal for Fiscal Year 2024

President Biden has proposed strong funding for youth justice programs for FY24 releasing a total package of $760 million ($360 million more than the FY23 enacted level). A summary of the proposed funding levels for youth justice programs can be found here. And a full description of the Administration’s FY 2024 performance budget for the Department of Justice can be found here. Here are some of the key figures proposed:

• $157 million for Title II (state formula grants, currently $75 million)
• $151 million for Title V (state and local prevention grants, currently $65 million)
• $50 million for a new Community-Based Alternatives to Youth Incarceration Initiative
• $40 million for juvenile indigent defense (an increase of $37.5 million over current level)
• $30 million for a new Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Collaboration Initiative
• $15 million for a new program to support sealing and expungement
• $6 million for a new training and technical assistance program focused on youth and family engagement. 

Thank you to all who signed onto Act4JJ’s letters to the Administration urging them to support strong federal youth justice funding!

CJJ Hill Day This Spring

Our national partner, the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, is hosting a Hill Day on May 24, 2023, to advocate for robust federal youth justice funding for Fiscal Year 2024 and reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA). Register if you would like to participate in person or remotely. Registrants will receive tools to help support their meetings, phone scripts for call ins, and social media activations.

Please let us know if you will be in DC and for the CJJ conference and if you will be attending Hill Day. If you would like an NJJN staff member to make a Hill visit with you, contact Melissa Goemann at goemann@njjn.org.

National Sign-on Letters and Comments

Please see below for a list of the national letters that NJJN signed onto in 2023:

• 2/2/23 - Letter from First Focus updating their Sept. 2022 letter which urged HHS Secretary Becerra to form a Children’s Interagency Coordinating Council with a revised set of recommendations for the formation of the council.  
• 2/14/23 – Letter from DeCarcerate Memphis to Attorney General Garland and Secretary Buttigieg in response to the police killing of Tyre Nichols expressing outrage at his death and asking them to take four specific steps in response. 
• 2/20/23 – Two letters from Act4JJ urging President Biden and Congress to support strong Fiscal Year 2024 youth justice funding.
• 3/2/23 – Letter requesting strong FY 2024 allocation for the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee, which had been underfunded for years. The effects of chronic underfunding have impacted programs that support education, public health, health research, job training, and social services.
• 3/14/23 - Two letters from The Civil Rights Corps that constitute their Community Safety Federal Agenda - the Legislative Agenda and the FY24 Appropriations Agenda. The Legislative Agenda contains recommendations for bills that address root causes of harm and provide evidence-informed interventions. The FY24 Appropriations Agenda urges members of Congress to make a downpayment on these needed priorities through investments in the FY2024 budget.
• 3/23/23 - Letter from the Reconnecting Youth Campaign urging lawmakers to increase federal funding for the programs that provide education, training, national service, employment opportunities, and supportive services in FY24.
• 3/30/23 – Letter asking Congress to continue funding the bipartisan Second Chance Act program for FY24 (funded at $125 million in FY23). The Second Chance Act authorizes funding for programs that will improve the coordination of reentry services and policies for adults and youth at the state and local levels.
• 4/5/23 - Letter in support of the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act (SICCA). SICCA aims to prevent child abuse in youth residential programs (including withing the youth legal system), enhance national data collection, and reporting for youth in these programs. This bill is an important first step in increasing transparency and preventing child abuse to ensure the safety and well-being of youth in institutional care settings.