By Benjamin Kail, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania’s domestic violence support groups face the dual challenge of litigation over the Trump administration’s anti-diversity agenda and a state budget delay that’s exacerbating concerns about impacts to services for survivors.
Some nonprofit support groups and rape crisis centers had already been short-staffed and were pressing the state and federal government to boost funding when they were shaken earlier this year by a temporary federal funding freeze.
Now, the groups’ fight to serve survivors shares the spotlight with increased tension between the White House and the judiciary, where President Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly challenged Congress’s constitutional “power of the purse.”
Nonprofit leaders say they’re grappling with not only a lagging state budget process but ongoing legal battles over restrictive federal grant criteria — with the White House’s purge of diversity, equity and inclusion and other initiatives clashing with programs that have long been critical to women and underserved communities in need of counseling, 24/7 hotlines, legal assistance and rapid re-housing.
The fight over grant conditions is playing out in federal court in Rhode Island, where the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence and more than a dozen domestic violence and sexual assault groups nationwide notched a temporary win last week. The groups argued that the Trump administration’s grant rules flout the Violence Against Women Act, exceed executive authority and leave survivors and victims they serve “in grave jeopardy.”
A federal judge on Friday issued a preliminary stay on several conditions for grants that the Department of Justice’s Office of Violence Against Women (OVW) implemented in May to comply with Trump’s executive orders, and to ensure grant recipients’ programs were aligned with the president’s agenda.
The Pennsylvania coalition and similar groups from at least 15 states and Washington, D.C., said in a June lawsuit that OVW grantees were being forced to certify they won’t use grant funds to promote “gender ideology,” even though the Violence Against Women Act “expressly forbids grantees from discriminating based on gender identity.”
“OVW seems to be demanding that grantees promise not to operate any ‘DEI’ programs, in the face of VAWA’s requirement to serve underserved racial and ethnic groups,” the plaintiffs added. “OVW grantees must certify that they will not ‘prioritize illegal aliens’ or ‘promote or facilitate’ immigration violations, despite Congress’s directives for certain OVW programs to emphasize assistance to immigrants, and despite Congress’s direction that OVW programs do not discriminate on the basis of alienage status.”
The Pennsylvania coalition told the Post-Gazette that Friday’s court ruling halted “dangerous new requirements” that made it impossible for many grantees to do their work.
“This preliminary injunction is an incredible win for domestic violence victims and survivors and the programs that serve them,” CEO Susan Higginbotham said in a statement. “But this is not a permanent solution, and we still have work to do. As long as this administration silences the most vulnerable people we serve, PCADV will continue to raise our collective voice.”
‘Haphazard’ rules
The Trump administration said the coalitions’ case was premature. Lawyers for Department of Justice and OVW say grant applications have increased this year despite the new criteria, that the plaintiffs cannot prove any harm, and that the administration has the power to apply its priorities to grant considerations.
U.S. District Court Senior Judge William E. Smith, sitting in Rhode Island and appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, found the administration’s arguments unconvincing.
He said OVW’s new restrictions placed the coalitions between a rock and a hard place: sign off on the new conditions and risk being hit with a “false claims” case if they don’t fully comply or misinterpret the agency’s conditions, or forgo federal funds essential to domestic violence groups’ missions, leading to a “disruption of important and, in some cases, life-saving services to victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.”
The judge also ruled that while OVW “possesses far-reaching authority over VAWA-authorized grants,” the new conditions were imposed “in such a vague and haphazard manner to be arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion,” likely in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
He also ruled that OVW appeared to have “entirely failed to consider” the impacts of the conditions, particularly that their “vague and confusing language” could “cause significant adverse effects on the coalitions and the vulnerable populations that they serve.”
The Trump administration’s assurances that it would be “reasonable in its interpretations of the conditions is cold comfort,” the judge added.
“In the context of this case and the present Administration, the words of President Ronald Reagan have never rang more true: ‘The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.’”
The judge’s temporary stay on the conditions for VAWA-related grants comes as the Trump administration seeks to fend off challenges to its actions on several fronts. It also comes as states, advocates and lawyers weigh how to block the White House’s moves after the U.S. Supreme Court recently limited nationwide injunctions.
Judge Smith has not yet considered the merits of the coalitions’ constitutional claims, including that the administration’s grant conditions run afoul of the First Amendment’s free speech protections. Attorneys and advocates expect the case to continue in court.
Officials at OVW did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
While administration lawyers asserted in a court filing that the public has an interest “in the judiciary respecting the Executive Branch’s ability to lawfully direct and guide agencies’ spending decisions,” Judge Smith retorted: “Speaking of respect, the public has an interest in the Executive respecting the Legislature’s spending decisions.”
The ruling came on the heels of another decision, also out of U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, that granted a temporary restraining order on the administration’s similar restrictions on grants through Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services.
The Pennsylvania coalition is a plaintiff in that case as well, along with nearly two dozen domestic violence, housing, homelessness and youth groups. The coalition said that ruling ensured organizations serving survivors of domestic and sexual violence, LGBTQ+ youth and unhoused communities can continue their work “without being forced to abandon inclusive practices or censor support for transgender people.”
Plaintiffs in both the recent cases are backed by lawyers for Democracy Forward Foundation, the ACLU Foundation of Rhode Island, the National Women’s Law Center, Jacobson Lawyers Group and the Lawyers’ Committee for Rhode Island. Along with DOJ and OVW, Attorney General Pam Bondi and OVW acting director Ginger Baran Lyons were named as defendants.
Democracy Forward told the Post-Gazette that Friday’s decision on OVW grant conditions marked a critical moment in ensuring survivors get the services and support they need.
“None of these unlawful moves by the administration are making anyone’s lives better,” the group said. “The Justice Department should be exploring what they can be doing to keep people and communities safe, not threatening funding for local and community organizations with proven results.”
Michael Waterloo, communications director for the Pennsylvania coalition, said in an interview that restrictions on grants as sought by the Trump administration make it harder for its network of 59 local domestic violence programs to do their jobs.
He noted that when a police officer arrives at the scene of a car accident, the officer isn’t asking about gender identity or diversity — “they’re helping them.”
“We’re required by statute to serve all,” he said. “If someone is fleeing their home, we’re there to help them.”
The coalition’s programs serve almost 90,000 victims and survivors of domestic violence and their children across every county in the state each year.
The group said that 119 Pennsylvanians died from domestic violence incidents last year alone, marking a 14% increase in deaths over 2023. Almost 80% were killed by a firearm.
Over the past decade, more than 1,600 people died as a result of domestic violence in Pennsylvania. While the majority of the deaths were women, the figure also includes men, children and members of law enforcement.
‘No cash’
In a similar matter, Joyce Lukima, director and chief operating officer of the Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect, said the group’s “network of rape crisis centers are experiencing a tremendous amount of financial stress.”
“They have not seen an increase in five years, and now with the current state budget impasse they are working without being paid for their services,” she said.
The state’s rape crisis centers, which served more than 26,000 victims of assault, abuse and harassment last year, have not received a bump in state funding for several years, and they’ve been pushing Gov. Josh Shapiro and the General Assembly for an $8 million increase from the state Department of Human Services.
Mr. Shapiro’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The governor recently said in Philadelphia that negotiations had taken longer than he’d like, but that he and the top negotiators on both sides of the aisle “all understand the issues that need to be resolved.”
The top Democrat in the Senate, Jay Costa of Allegheny County, said recently that he is concerned the missed state payments will exacerbate problems for behavioral health and wellness programs.
“Providers won’t be getting paid and they will have to make tough decisions going forward,” he said.
Mr. Waterloo of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence said “it’s extremely concerning” the state budget has not yet been approved.
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“That’s really going to affect our programs,” he said. “No payments for several months — that can create issues with paying bills and making payroll. They can have some lines of credit, but many of those are maxed out. We’re waiting with no cash coming in but expenses continuing, with the costs of everything raising and budgets more constrained than ever.”
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