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The Trump administration is trying to slash access to lawyers who defend the rights of Americans with disabilities, advocates say.

Most of the lawyers work either for the Department of Justice or for disability rights agencies that Congress set up in every state decades ago. Many of the Justice Department lawyers quit in 2025 after being reassigned to other duties, their supporters say. And Trump budget officials proposed deep cuts to federal grants supporting the state-based legal groups.

People with disabilities have the right to live in their communities if possible. Federal laws and court decisions say they may attend school, work jobs, and go to restaurants, movie theaters, and other public places. If they can find lawyers, they can file legal challenges when those rights are denied.

The federally funded attorneys quietly work to ensure the U.S. lives up to promises made by the Americans with Disabilities Act and other laws, said Alison Barkoff, a health law professor at George Washington University.

“I think many families of people with disabilities, or even many people with disabilities themselves, don’t hear about it until they Google, ‘Where can I get help?’” said Barkoff, who helped lead such efforts under Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

The attorneys’ goals include ensuring that people with disabilities have the services they need to live in their own homes, instead of having to move into nursing homes or other types of institutions, Barkoff said.

“These are people who, if these supports are ripped away, are going to have to leave their communities and their families, at a higher cost for taxpayers,” she said.

The state-based disability rights groups are known as “protection and advocacy” organizations. Most of them are nonprofit groups.

Congress approved the federally financed system in the 1970s after TV journalist Geraldo Rivera exposed abuses in a New York institution for people with mental and intellectual disabilities, revelations that ignited a national outcry.

President Donald Trump proposed cutting the system’s federal funding from $148 million to $69 million for fiscal year 2026, according to the National Disability Rights Network, which represents the state-based groups.

Appropriations committees in the U.S. House and Senate have recommended Congress maintain funding at the previous level. But advocates for the agencies worry that even if Congress maintains current support, the administration will try again to slash their support in future years. “It definitely would put people in our communities in harm’s way,” said Marlene Sallo, the national network’s executive director.

White House officials declined to comment........

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