By Steve Neavling
The Justice Department is shutting down a task force created in the 1980s to target major drug cartels and an office that for decades worked to ease racial tensions, part of what officials call the agency’s most sweeping reorganization in 20 years, Reuters reports.
Attorney General Pam Bondi approved the changes in September, which will cut about 275 positions and eliminate or reassign 140 employees, according to internal documents. The plan also merges divisions and consolidates units, including folding the Tax Division into the DOJ’s Criminal and Civil divisions.
The Community Relations Service, which mediated racial and ethnic conflicts for 60 years, and the Office for Access to Justice, which promoted legal aid, are also being closed. A Justice Department official said the moves will eliminate “more than $41 million in bureaucratic spending.”
In a statement, the department said the restructuring “will save the Department over $11 million and further President Trump’s mission of having a federal government that’s more efficient and effective for the American people.”
The changes sparked criticism from congressional Democrats and former DOJ employees.
“This is not normal,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland wrote in a letter accusing the department of carrying out the plan without approval from Congress.
Stacey Young, a former DOJ attorney who now leads the advocacy group Justice Connection, warned the cuts will weaken prosecutions and community outreach.
“Americans will feel the harm of this administration’s slash-and-burn approach to governing,” she said. “This isn’t a reorganization — it’s a decimation of some of DOJ’s most vital work.”
