Democrats Warn of ‘Dire’ Budget Shortfall for Federal Defenders

Senate Democrats urged the judiciary to reevaluate its funding requests for federal public defenders in light of “dire” shortfalls that “will have devastating impacts.”

The Federal Defender Service, which is part of the judiciary, is “in dire financial straits, with estimates that this shortfall could, conservatively, result in a 9-12% reduction in the program’s current workforce,” 17 senators wrote in a letter Thursday to the Administrative Office of the US Courts, the policymaking body for the federal judiciary.

The letter attributes the shortfalls to the AO’s accounting decisions, which fail to consider the “foundational and fundamental services the Federal Public ...