[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 50 (Wednesday, March 17, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E265]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         VOCA FIX TO SUSTAIN THE CRIME VICTIMS FUND ACT OF 2021

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 16, 2021

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 
1652, or the ``VOCA Fix Act of 2021,'' a critical piece of legislation 
designed to curtail and prevent future cuts to an already diminished 
federal victim service grants program.
  This legislation must pass, because VOCA grants provide compensation 
to victims of crime at critical moments of desperate need.
  VOCA funds could help compensate the only surviving victim of Robert 
Lee Haskell who, driven by vengeance, fatally shot six members of his 
exwife's family in Texas, including four children.
  The survivor of Haskell's rampage, a girl of only fifteen, was shot 
in the head and only survived by playing dead.
  VOCA funds could help compensate the wife and two children of a man 
killed in a home intrusion in Harris County, Texas, after an intruder 
entered the family's home, ordered the wife and children to lock 
themselves into a room, and then proceeded to shoot their husband and 
father.
  VOCA funds could help compensate a woman who was abducted in Houston 
and forced to drive to an ATM at gunpoint, where she withdrew cash to 
give to her abductors.
  VOCA funds could help compensate innumerable victims and survivors of 
federal crimes, but only if we pass this legislation.
  VOCA grants have been vital in their support of traditional victim 
service providers across the nation, particularly for those 
organizations serving victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, 
child abuse, trafficking, and drunk driving.
  VOCA grants also fund victim compensation, which helps survivors pay 
medical bills, missed wages, and in the most severe cases, funeral 
costs.
  However, the ``federal grants used to support victim services through 
VOCA have decreased significantly over the past several years.
  Further drastic cuts to VOCA funding are expected, as the non-
taxpayerfunded pool from which these grants originate, the Crime 
Victims Fund, is running dry.
  The Crime Victims Fund serves as an example of true justice, because 
the money used to support victims comes not from taxpayer dollars but 
rather from the criminal fines and penalties paid by federally 
convicted offenders.
  The Crime Victims Fund has shrunk rapidly in recent years and 
continues to decline, because rather than prosecuting cases, the 
Department of Justice increasingly settles cases through deferred 
prosecution and non-prosecution agreements, and the monetary penalties 
associated with these agreements are deposited into the Treasury rather 
than the Crime Victims Fund.
  These agreements deny funding to victim services, which is contrary 
to the spirit of VOCA: monetary penalties from crimes should go to 
serve victims of crimes.
  The crimes from which these penalties are derived are the same, 
whether they are prosecuted or settled, and the funding should be going 
to serve victims.
  The VOCA Fix Act of 2021 fixes this by ensuring that monetary 
penalties associated with deferred and non-prosecution agreements go 
into the Crime Victims Fund instead of into the Treasury.
  This simple fix will prevent future funding cuts that jeopardize 
programs' abilities to serve their communities and will help address 
the many growing and unmet needs of victims and survivors, including 
survivors of domestic violence.
  This legislation not only recognizes that it is the victims of crime 
that bear the brunt of the drastic cuts being made, but also that we 
must protect those victims that have the courage to come forward and 
work together with the authorities to bring justice to their offenders.
  Victims who cooperate with authorities often fear for their own 
safety and face pain at revisited trauma, and this legislation 
recognizes that rather than putting victims in further danger, we 
create for them a safe environment--both physically and emotionally.
  Victims may be intimidated by law enforcement or other government 
agencies, but if we want victims to fully and freely cooperate with the 
authorities, we must ensure that victims feel protected and that there 
is no risk of becoming retraumatized.
  We must also make sure that if victims cooperate with authorities, 
then measures to ensure the safety of victims will be provided in our 
government agencies working in tandem with victim service providers.
  Tomorrow, the House will vote on H.R. 1620, which will reauthorize 
the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994.
  We are doing so because we recognize the urgency and dire need faced 
by the victims and survivors throughout this country during a 
significant moment of ongoing domestic violence caused by this pandemic 
and experienced by both women and men.
  Although local victim services agencies are there to help, they are 
facing record numbers of clients as well as the economic consequences 
of the pandemic.
  Without the VOCA Fix Act of 2021, survivors of domestic violence and 
sexual assault will inevitably lose access to victim support services, 
leaving victims and survivors without options for safety and vulnerable 
to further victimization.
  Madam Speaker, the time is now to deliver access to the services 
victims and survivors so desperately need during a critical moment when 
the need for victim assistance has skyrocketed and programs are being 
forced to cut lifesaving services for victims.

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