[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 47 (Wednesday, April 26, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H1749]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
                          VICTIMS RIGHTS WEEK

  (Mr. COSTA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COSTA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak on behalf of the 
Victims Rights Caucus which Congressmembers Poe, Harris and I chair. We 
have introduced a resolution that recognizes what many Americans know 
all too well: crime does not know any geographic, demographic, or 
political boundary. It touches all of our communities.
  We support the Victims Rights Week and the Crime Victims Fund, 
legacies that President Reagan and Congress passed in the 1980s. The 
Crime Victims Fund is distributed to service providers who assist 
millions of crime victims annually throughout our communities in a host 
of ways. It is paid for by fines levied on criminals, not taxpayers.
  Yet today, our caucus is fighting to protect that fund from this 
administration's wrongheaded attempt to balance the budget on the backs 
of victims by putting those dollars into the general fund. That is 
simply wrong.
  We must ensure that this fund is used for its original intent: to 
provide for crime victims, to provide for probation departments, and to 
help the victims who truly need and deserve our assistance to hold 
offenders accountable.

                          ____________________