[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 127 (Tuesday, July 20, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4960]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Victims of Crime Act

  Mr. President, on another matter, we will soon be voting on the 
Victims of Crime Act. I was an original cosponsor of that act when the 
Senate Judiciary Committee developed the legislation years ago. I 
appreciate the opportunity to work with Senators Durbin, Graham, and 
other Judiciary Committee colleagues this year on amendments to this 
landmark law.
  The principle behind this statute is very simple. It is that fines 
and penalties collected by the Department of Justice from those who are 
convicted of committing Federal crimes should be used to help those who 
are victims of the crimes.
  Because the fund relies solely upon fines and other assessments paid 
by Federal criminals, not from the taxpayers, it does not add to the 
deficit. So any of these expenditures are very fiscally responsible.
  The money in this fund helps at least 6,800 local organizations, 
examples like rape crisis centers and child advocacy centers. So this 
money provides needed services to millions of crime victims across the 
country each year. The fund supports crisis hotline counseling or 
medical care or other services to these crime survivors, but it also 
does things like providing lost wages, courtroom advocacy, temporary 
housing, and there are a lot of other services that come from this 
money.
  Since its enactment, billions of dollars have flowed through the 
Crime Victims Fund to our States and our communities to help support 
victim assistance programs. More than three decades after its 
inception, the fund is still working, but deposits into the fund have 
declined significantly in recent years. So obviously the continuation 
of some of these programs is less effective or even in doubt when the 
money available for them is not certain to be there. This is an issue 
of why this bill is before us, the VOCA Fix Act. This bill would 
resolve this problem of not enough money going into the fund.
  Why is the money not going into the fund? The issue stems from 
Federal prosecutors' increasing reliance upon no- or deferred-
prosecution agreements rather than upon conviction. The money collected 
by the Department of Justice in these settlement agreements, then, is 
not attributed to the Crime Victims Fund the same way as if it had gone 
through the court process and people had been convicted.
  Among other provisions, the bill makes a deposits fix to preserve the 
Crime Victims Fund; in other words, to overcome the fact that these no- 
or deferred-prosecution agreements--that money doesn't now go into 
those funds. It requires that the money from the no- or deferred-
prosecution agreements must go into the fund rather than the General 
Fund. The bill also changes the match requirements for State and local 
grant programs that rely on this statute.
  Providing this fix will enable crime survivors in my State of Iowa 
and across the Nation to continue to have these services available in 
their communities. I encourage my colleagues to support the legislation