Sponsors (11)
The bill redirects federal resources toward community-led, non-carceral public-safety, behavioral-health, housing, and research investments—benefiting underserved communities and building alternatives to policing—while increasing federal spending, creating administrative and privacy burdens, and triggering political and fiscal trade-offs for states, localities, and small providers.
Low-income communities and community-based organizations will receive new federal grants to run crisis intervention, violence-prevention, reentry, housing-support, and non-carceral safety programs, expanding local alternatives to traditional policing.
Communities disproportionately harmed by the criminal-legal system (including survivors of police violence, mass incarceration, sexual assault, and deportation) will get prioritized, culturally appropriate services and organizations led by people with lived experience will be prioritized for funding.
People in underserved areas will gain better access to behavioral health care because funds support mental-health and substance-use treatment and formal recognition/hiring of community health workers.
All taxpayers face higher federal spending (bill cites roughly $13.5 billion across programs and creates a new HHS division), increasing the federal budget footprint and potential pressure on deficits or taxes.
Small community groups and cash-strapped jurisdictions will face increased administrative, reporting, and grant-application burdens (detailed demographic/service reporting, competitive grants, and new compliance processes), which can reduce their ability to participate.
States are required to match federal funds in some programs, which can limit participation by poorer states and reduce the dollars actually reaching communities that need them most.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Creates an HHS Division to fund, coordinate, and evaluate grants and research for community-led, non-carceral approaches to reduce criminal-legal contact and expand supports for harmed and marginalized communities.
Introduced July 15, 2025 by Summer Lee · Last progress July 15, 2025
Creates a new Division on Community Safety within HHS to fund, coordinate, research, and provide technical assistance for non-carceral, community-led approaches that reduce criminal-legal contact and expand supports for people and communities harmed by policing, incarceration, detention, deportation, or sexual and other violence. Establishes definitions and program rules, a lived-experience advisory committee, data and evaluation requirements, and a rolling grant program that prioritizes community-based organizations serving marginalized and disproportionately impacted populations for a wide range of community-safety activities (crisis response, violence interruption, housing, public-health services, built-environment improvements, and more).