Subcommittee Ranking Member Crockett’s Opening Statement at Subcommittee Hearing on Republicans’ Political Demonization of Life-Saving Nonprofit Organizations
Washington, D.C. (July 15, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oversight, delivered opening remarks at a subcommittee hearing on how Republicans are demonizing nonprofit organizations for political gain while defunding thousands of grant programs that support public safety, health services, and civic infrastructure nationwide.
Below are Ranking Member Crockett’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at today’s hearing.
WATCH Subcommittee Ranking Member Crockett’s opening statement.
Ranking Member Jasmine Crockett
Subcommittee on Oversight
Hearing on “How Leftist Nonprofit Networks Exploit Federal Tax Dollars to Advance a Radical Agenda”
July 15, 2025
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What we’re witnessing today is yet another political stunt—plain and simple.
Republicans here are drawing a clear line in the sand: they will stop at nothing to advance Donald Trump’s agenda and the dangerous blueprint laid out in Project 2025—even if it means targeting the very groups that are working to protect our communities and support our law enforcement agencies.
Let’s be clear: my colleagues across the aisle have shown little to no interest in working with Democrats on real solutions for the American people.
Instead of addressing pressing civil rights issues constituents actually care about—like wrongful deportations of U.S. citizens, ongoing efforts to undermine voting rights, or the serious flaws in our criminal justice system—this Committee is spending its time holding a hearing with a title that sounds like it was ripped from a conspiracy blog.
This hearing, “How Leftist Nonprofit Networks Exploit Federal Tax Dollars to Advance a Radical Agenda,” really?
This kind of rhetoric—whether directed at nonprofits, their leaders, or elected officials—is not only reckless; it’s beneath the dignity of this institution.
And sadly, this isn’t the first time this has happened.
Over the past six months, we’ve seen hearing after hearing do nothing but attack nonprofits—organizations whose mission is to serve, protect, and uplift vulnerable communities.
In just my own committees, this has got to be the second or third time I’ve had to sit through this same tired narrative.
If my Republican colleagues are truly concerned about taxpayer dollars being misused for political agendas, I’d encourage them to take a long, hard look in the mirror.
But since we’re here again, spending more of the American people’s time and money on political theater, let’s at least stick to the facts:
Fact: Under the Trump Administration, the Department of Justice stripped hundreds of millions of dollars from the Office of Justice Programs—money that funded essential community safety initiatives like victim services, gang prevention, and reentry support.
Fact: Trump and Republicans slashed grants to organizations like the National Organization for Victim Assistance, which trains advocates who staff domestic violence shelters, hotlines, and rape crisis centers.
Fact: They cut over $10 million in funding to the National Policing Institute—a nonprofit helping rural police departments reduce violent crime.
Fact: This week, Republicans are trying to gut PEPFAR, a lifesaving program that partners with nonprofits around the world and has saved more than 26 million lives.
And let’s not forget: many of these cuts were laid out in Project 2025—a radical, far-right playbook drafted by hyper-conservative nonprofits for the express purpose of dismantling the very government institutions and systems that serve the public good.
Ironically, we even have one of the authors of Project 2025 here with us today.
So let’s not pretend this is about nonprofit accountability. Because if it were, this Committee would also be investigating:
The Conservative Partnership Institute, which has pushed anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-vaccine propaganda—and hosted efforts to challenge the 2020 election.
The New Century Foundation, a white nationalist organization that somehow maintains 501(c)(3) status to launder hate speech through the language of “intellectual inquiry.”
Or Turning Point USA, which has been linked to organizers of the January 6th insurrection.
But Republicans aren’t talking about those groups—because this isn’t about accountability. It’s about silencing organizations that challenge Republican power. It’s about targeting nonprofits that protect the very people this Trump-aligned movement continues to harm.
These organizations are defending victims of unlawful actions. They're helping to combat global pandemics. They're supporting police departments when this very Committee won’t. They’re working to build safer, healthier communities—while Trump and his allies defund them to hand out tax breaks to billionaires.
And maybe that’s the real threat here: they’re effective.
They get people off the streets, out of prison, and into opportunity.
They educate people about injustice—and that, apparently, scares some folks more than any so-called radical agenda.
Because the only thing truly “radical” about these nonprofits is their belief that every human being deserves dignity, opportunity, and equal protection under the law—values my Republican colleagues seem to have forgotten, along with “love thy neighbor.”
So instead of demonizing the groups trying to do right by our communities, maybe we should be asking how to support them—how to ensure taxpayer dollars reach the people who need them most.
Because this hearing should be about public safety, not political vendettas. Until that happens, these hearings are doing more harm than good.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.