Sessions might have avoided testifying on Trump’s budget in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee today, but he is still accountable and must answer for devastating budget cuts, including to grants that provide assistance for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence, and inhumane proposals that would tear families apart.

Trump proposed slashing the Justice Department budget by $1.1 billion, while boosting funding for Trump’s extreme immigration priorities.

Politico: “The Trump administration is proposing a $27.7 billion for the Justice Department in fiscal 2018, down $1.1 billion, or about 4 percent, from the continuing resolution the previous year.”

Associated Press: “The budget adds $26 million for 300 new assistant U.S. attorneys to fight gangs, violent crime and illegal immigration. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has identified those areas as his top priorities. The plan calls for 230 of these prosecutors to be stationed in yet-to-be-named cities deemed hot spots for violence. Another 70 will be assigned to border states, focusing on those who enter and re-enter the country illegally after deportation, as well as document-fraud, human smuggling, drug trafficking and other immigration-related offenses.”

Trump wants to increase funding for immigration enforcement while withholding funding for sanctuary cities that refuse to turn over undocumented immigrants to federal authorities.

Politico: “The budget proposal sent to Congress also contains language targeting so-called sanctuary cities by requiring that localities comply with federal immigration detainer requests in order to receive Justice or Homeland Security Department funding.”

Politico: “But the administration proposed nearly $145 million in additional funding for immigration enforcement, adding 75 immigration judges along with about 375 support personnel, 70 new assistant U.S. attorneys focused on immigration and border crime, 40 deputy marshals, and new funds for prison space to detain more illegal immigrants.”

Trump’s budget slashes funding for grants that provide assistance to victims of sexual assault and domestic abuse, without any guarantee the funding will be made up elsewhere.

McClatchy: “A chart buried on page 245 of President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget analysis looks alarming: It shows a massive decrease in funding over 10 years for federal programs that aid survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. The 93 percent cut appeared to confirm the worst fears of survivor advocates and women’s activists.”

McClatchy: “After the budget came out this week, the Trump administration rushed to reassure advocates. It advised them to ignore the chart that shows funding for the programs holding steady in 2018, then plummeting from $460 million to eventually $30 million annually within a decade. They said the White House had no plans to gut the Violence Against Women grant programs. Most of this year’s budget for the programs comes from the federal Crime Victims Fund. In future years, though, the budgets do not assume that money will be transferred from the fund. The administration has yet to determine how it will pay for the programs after this year.”