Defender Funding in Stopgap May Still Tee Up Future Shortfall

Federal public defenders say the stopgap funding bill ending the US government shutdown will increase their funding and allow millions to be repaid to private defense attorneys but falls short of what’s needed to sustain operations all fiscal year.

The additional funding, included in the short-term funding extension to reopen the government, allocates $1.56 billion for the defender services, which provides attorneys and other defense resources to low-income individuals facing criminal charges.

This represents an increase over last fiscal year’s amount, and it will allow the judiciary to pay back more than $70 million to private attorneys and other service ...