NEW: Attorney General Wants $1 Billion for Crime Victims
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.
AG Coakley hopes the proposed cap increase to $1 billion will help victims of crimes gain better access to the services they need. Coakley, along with Washington Attorney General Robert McKenna, wrote a letter to Congress calling for an increase in funding for victims.
“This much needed assistance is critically important for crime victims and their famalies,” Coakley said. “We are requesting that Congress increase the cap on the Crime Victims Fund so that we maintain an appropriate level of funding to ensure that victims of crime receive these essential services.”
The letter from Coakley and McKenna requested that Congress raise the cap on the Crime Victims Fund to support programs authorized by the Victim of Crime Act of 1984 (VOCA). These include, but are not limited to, direct compensation for the victim, programs for battered spouses and children, and violence prevention programs. The fund was created as a part of VOCA to provide essential services for victims, and is funded entirely through collections from criminal fines, special assessments and other penalties by criminal offenders.
Congress placed a spending limit on annual Fund obligations, but vowed it would retain all amounts in the Fund to support crime victim services. State VOCA assistance will actually be cut this year, mostly due to new federal management and administrative costs.
Today’s letter from NAAG requests a 2012 VOCA cap of at least 1$ billion to support VOCA-authorized programs without any new earmarks, set asides or uses of the Fund.
“With the demonstrated need for increased funding and more than enough money in the Fund, now is the time to raise the cap on the Crime Victims Fund and release additional money for the purpose for which congress intended,” the NAAG letter reads.
To read the full NAAG letter to Congress, click here.
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