[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 57 (Tuesday, April 10, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S4302]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO JOHN GILLIS

 Mr. KYL. Mr. President, National Crime Victims Rights Week 
will soon be celebrated. I would like to compliment John Gillis, the 
director of the Office of Victims of Crime at the Department of 
Justice, for his outstanding work on behalf of crime victims. I ask to 
have printed in the Record a column I wrote about Mr. Gillis.
  The material follows.

                     Honoring Director John Gillis

                       (By U.S. Senator Jon Kyl)

       Each April for the past 26 years, the Nation has observed 
     National Crime Victims Rights Week. This is a time when the 
     country recognizes the harm suffered by millions of Americans 
     at the hands of criminals and calls for additional ways to 
     support victims in their struggle for justice.
       This year I'd like to use this week to praise the 
     leadership of John W. Gillis, the Director of the Justice 
     Department's Office for Victims of Crime (OVC). During his 
     long and distinguished law-enforcement career--including two 
     decades with the Los Angeles Police Department and a stint as 
     chair of the California Board of Prison Terms--Mr. Gillis has 
     fought tirelessly on behalf of crime victims.
       Mr. Gillis experienced personal tragedy in 1979 when gang 
     members murdered his daughter Louarna as part of a targeted 
     killing of children of police officers.
       This horrific tragedy compelled him to help found the 
     Justice for Homicide Victims and the Coalition of Victims 
     Equal Rights, an organization that works for the rights of 
     victims and their families. He also founded Victims and 
     Friends United and has been an active member of Memory of 
     Victims Everywhere and Parents of Murdered Children, a 
     support group for families of homicide victims.
       The President nominated Mr. Gillis to become Director of 
     OVC in 2001, and I was honored to lead his nomination through 
     the Senate. Since the beginning of his tenure, he has 
     transformed the OVC into an organization that truly puts 
     victims first.
       Through his ``victims first'' focus, he helped provide the 
     inspiration for the Scott Campbell, Stephanie Roper, Wendy 
     Preston, Louarna Gillis, Nila Lynn Crime Victims Rights Act 
     of 2004, named in part after his daughter, which Senator 
     Dianne Feinstein and I cosponsored, and which extends 
     meaningful and enforceable rights to federal crime victims 
     for the first time in our Nation's history.
       To ensure that these new rights will be enforced through 
     our courts, Mr. Gillis has supported the National Crime 
     Victim Law Institute and new clinics across the country; such 
     as the one here in Arizona, established by Arizona Voice for 
     Crime Victims, which provided the first model in the Nation. 
     These clinics provide free legal and social services to 
     victims of crime who seek to be treated with the respect and 
     dignity that they deserve. Congress has followed the example 
     Mr. Gillis set by providing critically needed resources to 
     support these efforts beginning in 2006, and we are committed 
     to continue expanding them.
       Under his leadership, OVC created the Helping Outreach 
     Programs to Expand (HOPE) grant program to help fund 
     grassroots victim service organizations that have had 
     difficulty in obtaining public funding through other sources. 
     In 2002, 376 programs received over $1.8 million to support 
     its development efforts, and, in 2007, the HOPE program will 
     continue to develop and expand the use of grassroots service 
     providers to help expand outreach to victims.
       OVC has reached out to the Native American communities 
     where the highest rates of violent crime occur. It increased 
     funding for services to victims and expanded eligibility for 
     this funding to include tribes not under federal 
     jurisdiction. In 2005, OVC funded approximately $8.5 million 
     for projects serving Native American crime victims, and, in 
     2006, it increased discretionary funding to $3.5 million for 
     the Tribal Victim Assistance Program, allowing 30 tribes to 
     develop direct services to victims of violent crime.
       OVC also recently announced the availability of an online 
     application for the International Terrorism Victim Expense 
     Reimbursement Program, which is intended to reimburse victims 
     for allowable expenses incurred as a result of acts of 
     terrorism occurring outside the United States. Additionally, 
     under OVC's Antiterrorism and Emergency Assistance Program, 
     OVC provided assistance to jurisdictions to support the 
     response to incidents of mass violence on school campuses.
       This Crime Victims Rights Week, we should not only honor 
     crime victims and those affected by crime, but think about 
     new ways to help and support victims in their struggle for 
     justice. The examples that I've cited are only a few of Mr. 
     Gillis's accomplishments as OVC director that will help those 
     seeking justice. And, I am proud to have someone like Mr. 
     Gillis guiding these efforts. His service to the President 
     and to crime victims is a credit to our country.

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