On February 4, 2025, Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general, and in April 2025 Bondi's Justice Department canceled about $820 million in grants for violence prevention, victim services and youth programs. Ricketts also voted to confirm FBI Director Kash Patel, under whom thousands of FBI employees were moved to immigration work, and cast the deciding vote for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who sent the National Guard into American cities.
On June 5, 2026, Ricketts voted against amendments to the immigration enforcement bill to fund local police hiring and Justice Department youth mentoring, then voted for the bill, which gave immigration agencies $70 billion. In October 2025 he voted against three amendments to limit the use of troops and federal officers in American cities.
Pete Ricketts's Votes and Confirmations on Police and Prevention Money, Federal Agents and Guard Deployments
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche, Whose Justice Department Canceled $820 Million in Crime Prevention Grants. Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general on February 4, 2025 and Todd Blanche as deputy attorney general on March 5, 2025, and in August 2026 he cast the deciding vote to confirm Blanche as attorney general. On April 22, 2025, the department terminated 373 competitive grants, and The defunded grants were initially valued at about $820 million, according to the Council on Criminal Justice, including violence intervention, victim services, youth and police co-responder programs. A federal judge who dismissed the grantees' lawsuit for lack of jurisdiction wrote that the cuts were "likely to harm communities and individuals vulnerable to crime and violence". Of about 225 appeals there were only 35 grants restored and 17 denied as of December 2025, according to a letter from House Democrats citing Reuters. In September 2025 the department rewrote the community violence intervention program so that Now, only city, county, and tribal governments are permitted to apply, shutting out the community groups that run the work.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Kash Patel, Whose FBI Moved Thousands of Employees to Immigration Work. On February 20, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director, and Patel was confirmed 51 to 49. In total, 9,161 people at the FBI worked on immigration, according to FBI records obtained by The Intercept, and by September 2025 most ATF agents had been pulled into immigration task forces. In 2025 gun prosecutions fell more than 10 percent in 40 of the nation's 94 federal districts, Reuters found.
- Ricketts Voted Against Money for Local Police Hiring and Youth Mentoring, Then for $70 Billion in Immigration Enforcement. On June 5, 2026, Ricketts voted against an amendment To appropriate amounts for local law enforcement hiring programs, which failed 45 to 53, and against an amendment to fund Justice Department youth mentoring programs, which lost 46 to 53. The same day he voted for the bill, which passed 52 to 47 and became law on June 10, 2026. The bill would provide $70 billion to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, NOTUS reported, a year after the Justice Department cut youth and violence prevention grants such as the Houston Teen and Police Service Academy, a mentoring program in Houston that had to reduce its staff.
- Ricketts Cast One of the 50 Votes for a Law That Bars Its New Police Money From Violence-Prevention Programs. On July 1, 2025, Ricketts voted yes on H.R. 1, which passed 50 to 50 with the Vice President's vote. Its Justice Department section sends Byrne grant and COPS police money to violent crime and immigration enforcement, but says No funds made available under this subsection shall be made available to community violence intervention and prevention initiative programs. Community violence intervention groups that lost their federal awards in April 2025 cannot draw on that money.
- Ricketts Cast a Deciding Vote for the Defense Secretary Who Sent the Guard Into Cities. On January 24, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense; the vote was 50 to 50 and the Vice President broke the tie, so Hegseth would not have been confirmed without Ricketts's vote. Under Hegseth, Guard troops were deployed to Los Angeles, where a judge ruled the deployment violated a federal law against military members conducting domestic law enforcement, warning of "a national police force with the President as its chief", and to Washington, D.C., where About 9,700 troops from across the country have served in the nation's capital since August 2025. The Defense Department says the National Guard will remain deployed in Washington, D.C., through Inauguration Day 2029.
- Ricketts Voted Against Limits on National Guard Deployments to American Cities in October 2025. On October 9, 2025, Ricketts voted against three amendments to the annual defense bill: one to clarify certain limitations on full-time National Guard duty in a state without its governor's consent, one To limit the provision of support by the Armed Forces to civilian law enforcement activities, and one To limit the use of Federal law enforcement officers for crowd control. Each failed short of the 60 votes needed. The Congressional Budget Office put the cost of the deployments at approximately $496 million from June through December 2025, and about half of Americans oppose deploying National Guard troops to their town or a major city in the state they live in, an NPR/Ipsos poll found in September 2025.
- Ricketts Voted Against a Budget Fund for Hiring Community Police Officers in February 2025. On February 21, 2025, Ricketts voted no on an amendment to the budget resolution creating a reserve fund to help police agencies hire or rehire officers for community policing and crime prevention. It failed 48 to 52. Two months later the Justice Department canceled grants initially valued at about $820 million, including police and youth programs.
Frequently Asked Questions About Pete Ricketts on Crime and public safety
What is Pete Ricketts's record on crime and public safety under Trump?
Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, whose Justice Department canceled about $820 million in crime prevention and victim services grants in April 2025 and moved agents to immigration work. In June 2026 he voted against funding local police hiring and youth mentoring and for $70 billion in immigration enforcement, and in October 2025 he voted against limits on National Guard deployments in cities.
How did Pete Ricketts vote on local police hiring money in the 2026 immigration enforcement bill?
Pete Ricketts voted on June 5, 2026 against an amendment to the immigration enforcement bill to fund local law enforcement hiring programs, which failed 45 to 53, and then voted for the bill, whose $70 billion went to ICE and Customs and Border Protection.
Did Pete Ricketts vote to limit National Guard deployments to American cities?
No. On October 9, 2025, Pete Ricketts voted against three amendments to the defense bill, including one to clarify certain limitations on full-time National Guard duty in a state without the consent of its governor, so such duty in Nebraska would have required the Nebraska governor's consent, and one To limit the provision of support by the Armed Forces to civilian law enforcement activities. About half of Americans oppose deploying National Guard troops to their town or a major city in the state they live in, an NPR/Ipsos poll found.
Last updated: 2026-10-25