GIFFORDS Applauds Senate Appropriations Committee for Prioritizing Gun Violence Prevention, Funding Lifesaving Programs

GIFFORDS Applauds Senate Appropriations Committee for Prioritizing Gun Violence Prevention, Funding Lifesaving Programs

Washington DC —GIFFORDS, the gun violence prevention group led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, applauds the Senate Appropriations Committee for approving the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) Fiscal Year 2024 funding bill in a 28–1 vote that provides critical funding to address gun violence and protect public safety. 

“Communities across the country continue to grapple with devastating gun violence. There have been more mass shootings than days in the calendar year. The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced legislation that prioritizes gun violence prevention and keeping communities safe. The legislation includes funding to support community violence interventions, provide resources for domestic violence survivors, and law enforcement efforts to combat violent crime and address gun violence. We applaud the Committee for prioritizing these important investments and urge Senate leadership to call a vote on this critical funding.”

• $55 million, an increase of $5 million, for the Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative, which provides grants to support community violence intervention strategies across the country.
• $1.689 billion for the ATF, an increase of $17 million. This funding would support ATF’s critical role in addressing gun violence, including supporting local and state law enforcement investigating gun crime using Crime Gun Intelligence Centers and NIBIN for ballistics examination, as well as help ATF prevent firearms trafficking. 
• $40 million to address hate crimes, including $20 million for the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention program, $10 million for the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Crime program, and $10 million for the Community-Based Approaches to Advancing Justice program. 
• $60.5 million in funding for the Office of Violence Against Women’s grant program that aids in the investigation of domestic violence and enforcement of protective orders, of which $4 million is for a homicide reduction initiative and $4 million of which is for the domestic violence lethality assessment initiative.
• $30 million in funding for law enforcement de-escalation training programs, of which $10 million will be administered by the Office of Justice Programs for training to improve responses to individuals with mental illness, intellectual disabilities or developmental disabilities and others who come into contact with law enforcement officers, and $20 million will be administered by the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) for the Law Enforcement Officer De-escalation Training program. 
• More than $10 million in congressionally directed spending projects, commonly referred to as earmarks, focused on community violence intervention programs. 

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