Congress Must Reject White House’s Spurious Attacks Against CRS and Illegal “Pocket Rescission” of Appropriated CRS Funds
Yesterday, the Trump Administration's launched yet another attack on the Community Relations Service and has attempted to effectuate “pocket rescission” of funds appropriated for CRS -- all based on spurious, deliberately false, and utterly irresponsible accounts of CRS’s history, mission, and work. As lawmakers of both parties have already decried and denounced, the Administration's actions are illegal and represent another abuse of power and attack on Congress's authority. Congress must reject the Trumpt Administration’s lawless conduct in toto.
The White House's announcement, made on the last Friday afternoon before the end of the fiscal year, states that it would return $15 million of the $20 million appropriated for CRS for FY 2025-2026. The White House describes CRS as "a nefarious sub-agency of DOJ that was shut down early in the Trump Administration" for having "worked to stoke racial tensions and promote radical critical race theory and gender ideology" and conducted "investigations . . . with impunity in the shadows." The announcement goes on to malign CRS's work to assist law enforcement with their work involving transgender Americans and single out statements by former CRS leaders as somehow justifying illegal rescission of CRS funds.
The current Congress has funded CRS twice (in March 2025 and February 2026) because even this Congress, including the Republican majority, recognized CRS’s value and the need to follow the law that established CRS.
CRS is not—and has never been—a shadow investigative agency. That characterization is pure fiction and the product of a strange, conspiratorial fantasy untethered from fact and reality. Portraying CRS’s confidentiality requirements as allowing it to conduct “investigations” with “impunity in the shadows” fundamentally mischaracterizes what CRS has done to effectuate peace with respect for the parties involved and without fanfare or self-congratulation. It is complete fabrication made out of whole cloth!
The attack for working to lessen and resolve conflicts involving transgender Americans is similarly false. Congress expanded CRS’s jurisdiction through the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 to include community conflicts arising from alleged hate crimes involving gender identity, sexual orientation, and gender, among other protected traits. In its work relating to transgender Americans and law enforcement, CRS was carrying out a mandate enacted by Congress to help police officers to carry out their legal duties safely and carefully without violating constitutional rights and causing unnecessary harm to citizens and themselves. Because of that, this Congress commended CRS for its work to prevent and address hate crimes in all these areas of conflict in American life.
Furthermore, the White House’s attack on former CRS heads for their comments made long after their government service is absurdly non sequitur. The Administration offers no logical connection between those statements and why Congress should defund CRS. The substance of the statements may be debated, and the Administration is free to disagree with them. But mere policy disagreements with CRS's past leaders do not permit the Administration to disobey the law in the present or justify maligning those who have faithfully and tirelessly served the public in and out of government.
CRS Restoration Project will continue making the case for restoring an impartial, professional Community Relations Service faithful to its congressional mandate: prevent violence, resolve conflict, and help Americans find common ground when their communities need it most.