Federal public defenders need an additional $116 million this summer to avoid an expected budget shortfall and the “catastrophic complications” that stem from starting the next fiscal year in a deficit, a top defender warned Democrats.
Melody Brannon, the defender chair for the Defender Services Advisory Group, said in a Friday letter that a supplemental appropriation of $115.7 million to the defenders “would fill the funding gap” in this year’s spending bill and prevent an expected payment lapse to certain lawyers.
The letter, obtained by Bloomberg Law, is addressed to Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee; Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a former public defender; and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.).
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Federal Courts are going to be a thing of the past pretty soon. No sense funding anything associated with them.
