Van Hollen Announces Amendment to Block Criminals Who Assaulted Police, Molested Children From Receiving Payouts from DOJ Slush Fund

Today, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS), announced that he will be introducing an amendment to the Republican reconciliation bill to prevent violent criminals, including those who assaulted police officers, and child molesters from receiving a payout from the Trump Administration’s slush fund created by the Department of Justice. The Senator will be pressing for a vote on his amendment during the reconciliation process expected to take place this week as Republicans seek to pass their legislation to fund ICE and CBP without guardrails. Senator Van Hollen’s amendment is in response to his exchange yesterday with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in the CJS Subcommittee, in which Blanche could not confirm that child sex offenders and violent January 6 th criminals will not be eligible to receive payouts from the fund. “The Trump Department of Justice is using American taxpayer dollars to reward Trump allies. This, in and of itself, is an obscene use of taxpayers’ money. But what’s even worse is that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche couldn’t confirm that violent criminals who assaulted our police on January 6 th or convicted child molesters would be ineligible for these taxpayer payouts. This is inexcusable. My amendment would prevent this disgusting misuse of taxpayer dollars – it’s time to see where Republicans stand,” said Senator Van Hollen.