Blumenthal Releases Damning New Report Showing How Trafficking Survivors Suffer as Trump Administration Withholds Over $130 Million in Funding

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a damning new report revealing that the Trump Administration has failed to award approximately $133.5 million in anti-human trafficking grant funding – about 75 percent of what Congress has appropriated for the last two years – forcing programs that support trafficking victims to shut down or dramatically reduce their services. This shocking withholding of funding follows the Administration allowing about $190 million in anti-human trafficking grants to lapse, including approximately $140 million that was previously dedicated to direct services for survivors of human trafficking and $16 million that was previously dedicated to supporting law enforcement’s ability to investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes. “This report is sickening— and it should shock the conscience of every Administration official and lawmaker who claims to support trafficking survivors,” Blumenthal said. “From the botched release of the Epstein Files to withholding funding to support survivors and prosecute sex crimes, the Trump Administration has shown exactly how little it cares about victims of trafficking. Whether the Trump Administration has withheld these funds out of malice or pure incompetence is immaterial. What matters are the tens of thousands of victims and survivors who are suffering without it. I am demanding that this funding be released immediately and the Trump Administration provide me – and survivors – with a clear commitment that these services will not be allowed to lapse again.” “Please consider what losing this program’s funding would mean for the people whose lives depend on it. I have worked hard to build this life, but I could not have done it alone. This program helped me become a mother who could bring her son home, a person with a career, and someone who could believe in herself again,” said an anonymous survivor who is quoted in the report. “Without it, I would not be where I am today. Losing it could put everything I have built at risk, including my life. I am only one of many survivors with something to lose—and there are others still waiting for the chance to heal.” The Department of Justice (DOJ) Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) is the primary entity overseeing grant programs that provide funding to organizations fighting human trafficking and supporting survivors. Providers who receive funding through OVC grant programs serve more than 10,000 human trafficking survivors quarterly, including children. As a result of the Trump Administration’s mismanagement and withholding of grant funding, service providers have been forced to close or drastically downsize their programming, with dire consequences for survivors: A wraparound program helping youth who have been trafficked for sex could not accommodate all of the children referred for services and was forced to put them on a waitlist. In disclosing that they do not have the resources to work with all the children who approach them for help, this provider said that it resulted in children “being further exploited.” A transitional housing program that provided no-cost housing and services to support survivors in healing, securing permanent housing, and finding employment was shuttered because the provider could not pay the rent or the staff after funding lapsed. The program served over a dozen survivors annually with housing and full therapeutic support. It had a proven history of success—almost every survivor graduated from the program successfully, building a stable life and avoiding a return to trafficking. A program providing no-cost counseling, behavioral healthcare services, and vocational training will close in January 2027 without federal funding. While the service provider has managed to fill the gaps following the lapse of federal grants, it will no longer be able to do so in less than two months. Unless funding is released, the program will close its doors to the 100 human trafficking survivors it serves each year and lay off its staff—including peer support personnel who themselves are survivors of trafficking. A transitional housing program will likely face closure if funding is not released. It provides 24/7 support and no-cost housing to at least five human trafficking survivors annually. Most are survivors of sex trafficking, and many were sold for sex while still minors. Many survivors enter the program with substance use disorders, PTSD, and other severe mental illness, and therefore rely not only on the program’s housing but also on its addiction recovery and mental health support services. The program is incredibly successful—90 percent of the participants successfully graduate into permanent housing of their own. Blumenthal wrote Brecht Donoghue, Director of the OVC Human Trafficking Division at DOJ, demanding that the Administration release the funding immediately and provide an explanation for its lapse. “President Trump purports to care about survivors of human trafficking—he claims his Administration is committed “to end[ing] the evil of human trafficking” and that he is “working tirelessly” to “end the scourge of human trafficking once and for all.” It is shocking that an Administration that has claimed to prioritize stopping the “scourge of human trafficking” has instead caused a two-thirds reduction in the OVC funding available to the anti-trafficking field,” Blumenthal wrote. “But perhaps this total disregard for human trafficking survivors should not come as a surprise from the Administration that not only fought the enactment of and then failed to fully comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act but also repeatedly retraumatized survivors through its botched file release. Put simply, human trafficking survivors deserve so much better from their government.” The text of Blumenthal’s letter to Donoghue is available here and copied below. Dear Director Donoghue, I write with concern about the delay in awarding Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) human trafficking grant awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 and 2026. By failing to issue these awards on a timely basis, the Administration has left hundreds of human trafficking victim services providers without OVC funding—and without the means to serve the thousands of survivors who rely on their support. On Tuesday, the American people sent a clear message to the Administration and the Republican Party—they will not stand for corruption in the halls of power, mismanagement of our public institutions, and neglect of the most vulnerable among us. As such, and pursuant to my congressional oversight responsibilities, I seek information about the delay in OVC’s human trafficking funding. As of October 1, 2026, the three-year award terms for both OVC’s FY22 and FY23 human trafficking grants have lapsed. And, as of today, the Trump Administration has failed to award about 75 percent of the money that Congress appropriated to replace them—resulting in a funding shortfall of over $130 million and creating a crisis in the anti-trafficking field. Until late last week, these figures were even higher—as of November 5, 2026, over 90 percent of the funding, totaling over $160 million, had not been awarded. When the FY22 grants lapsed in October 2025, human trafficking services providers were faced with a roughly one-third reduction in OVC funding supporting their work. Following the lapse of the FY23 grants in October 2026, the field faced an approximately two-thirds cut in OVC funding in just the two years this Administration has been in office. The money is available—it was appropriated by Congress in both FY25 and FY26. The Trump Administration has simply failed to award over 75 percent of it to service providers, law enforcement, and other experts. The harm caused by the delayed grants is not hypothetical. It has real, dire consequences for survivors of human trafficking. In the words of 29 service providers who wrote to you about the grant delays, “[s]urvivors bear the brunt of this delay.” Services organizations have been forced to close their doors or dramatically reduce their victim services offerings. As more time passes without this Administration simply awarding the funding Congress has appropriated, survivors have fewer and fewer services available as they attempt to escape trafficking and rebuild their lives. President Trump purports to care about survivors of human trafficking—he claims his Administration is committed “to end[ing] the evil of human trafficking” [2] and that he is “working tirelessly” to “end the scourge of human trafficking once and for all.” [3] It is shocking that an Administration that has claimed to prioritize stopping the “scourge of human trafficking” has instead caused a two-thirds reduction in the OVC funding available to the anti-trafficking field. But perhaps this total disregard for human trafficking survivors should not come as a surprise from the Administration that not only fought the enactment of and then failed to fully comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act but also repeatedly retraumatized survivors through its botched file release. Put simply, human trafficking survivors deserve so much better from their government. I call on the Trump Administration to immediately issue the human trafficking OVC grant awards for both FY25 and FY26. Pursuant to my congressional oversight responsibilities, I also request answers to the following questions by November 20, 2026: When do you anticipate issuing all remaining FY25 OVC human trafficking grant awards? When do you anticipate issuing all remaining FY26 OVC human trafficking grant awards? For both FY25 and FY26 OVC human trafficking grants: Why have the award notices been delayed? Who was involved within the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and at which steps in the grantmaking process? Who was involved from outside of OJP and at which steps in the grantmaking process? Who made the final decisions about grant recipients? Please provide all documents regarding the evaluation of FY25 and FY26 human trafficking grant applications to my office, including copies of the criteria used for decision making, peer reviews, OJP staff comments, and other documents and guidance used in making award decisions. Public reporting has alleged that OJP will stop using peer reviewers to help review applications and select awardees for its competitive grants. [4] Has OJP stopped using peer review as part of its competitive grant evaluation process? If so: When did that change occur? Why was this change made? Who was responsible for the decision to cease using peer review? If not, does OJP plan to stop using peer review as part of its competitive grant evaluation process and, if so, when? On January 20, 2025, how many people were employed by OVC? How many employees worked in the OVC Human Trafficking Division? How many employees were primarily responsible for evaluating grant applications and issuing grant awards? How many employees were involved with human trafficking grant applications and awards? How many employees outside of the OVC Human Trafficking Division were involved with human trafficking grant applications and awards? In which divisions did they primarily work? Today, how many people are employed by OVC? How many employees are in the OVC Human Trafficking Division? How many employees are primarily responsible for evaluating grant applications and issuing grant awards? How many employees are involved with human trafficking grant applications and awards? How many employees outside of the OVC Human Trafficking Division are involved with human trafficking grant applications and awards? In which divisions do they primarily work? If there has been a reduction in the number of employees, please explain why. I appreciate your attention to this important issue. Trafficking survivors deserve our support—and they deserve an explanation from the Trump Administration about why that support has been so delayed. -30- [2] Presidential Message on National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, The White House (Jan. 6, 2026), https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2026/01/presidential-message-on-national-slavery-and-human-trafficking-prevention-month/ . [3] Presidential Message on National Child Abuse Prevention Month, The White House (Apr. 7, 2026), https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2026/04/presidential-message-on-national-child-abuse-prevention-month/ . [4] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/justice-department-peer-review-grant-applications/