[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6436]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        THEFT FROM CRIME VICTIMS

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. POE. Madam Speaker, crime victims are once again being 
victimized, not by the hands of offenders but by the robber baron 
bureaucrats who are putting their hands in the pockets of American 
crime victims.
  Let me explain. Under a law called VOCA, Victims of Crime Act, crime 
victims receive money from a fund that criminals pay into as a part of 
their sentence. This wonderful idea makes criminals literally pay for 
their crimes and give compensation to injured and brutalized victims. 
Make criminals pay rent on the courthouse. Make them pay for the system 
they created. This fund is now over $1.2 billion.
  But now the insensitive Federal budget boys want to pick-pocket 
victims and take this money and put it into the abyss of the Federal 
Treasury. This is not taxpayer money. It doesn't belong to the Federal 
Government. The Feds should keep their sticky fingers off this victim 
money and Congress needs to protect victims from this bureaucratic 
theft.
  And that's just the way it is.

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