White House rips proposed Republican cuts to federal law enforcement

The White House is bashing the House Republican funding bill on Tuesday for its proposed cuts, arguing that the GOP isn’t serious about funding law enforcement to combat crime.

House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled a bill to fund the departments of Commerce and Justice, as well as science agencies, for fiscal 2025. The bill allocates $78.288 billion in discretionary spending, marking a roughly two percent cut, or $1.275 billion, from fiscal 2024 levels.

Senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates, in a statement, bashed any cut to Department of Justice funding and called on Congressional Republicans to work with Biden to combat crime.

“…Republican officials attempted to defund law enforcement to the benefit of violent criminals and fentanyl traffickers, targeting federal agencies that are critical to stopping gun crime, terrorism, and child trafficking,” Bates said.

He added, “even though he inherited a skyrocketing murder rate from his predecessor, Joe Biden’s unprecedented funding for public safety – together with signing the first significant gun crime bill in three decades – has delivered the lowest violent crime rate in 50 years.”

The White House has accused Republicans of not being focused on crime ahead of November, while the GOP and former President Trump has blamed Biden for crime rates.

Crime figures released earlier this month showed violent crime dropped considerably in the first months of 2024 compared to the same time last year, which marked a victory for the Biden administration.

Conservative Republicans in the lower chamber have zeroed in on the appropriations bill that was released on Tuesday, which is the Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) appropriations bill, as a way to go after the Justice Department in the wake of Trump’s conviction in his hush money trial in New York.

But, the bill does not mention special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading investigations into Trump, or seek to limit the powers of a special counsel more broadly.