On July 22, 2021, President Biden signed the VOCA Fix Act into law!
We are so grateful to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senators Gillibrand, Durbin, Graham, Leahy, Shaheen, Murkowski, Feinstein, Grassley, Baldwin, Klobuchar, and Cornyn for their leadership in moving this bill through the Senate. We also thank our community of supporters, staff, and steadfast advocates who played a critical role in raising awareness about the need to move the VOCA Fix Act forward.
About the VOCA Fix Act and How it Will Save Funding
The VOCA Fix to Sustain the Crime Victims Fund Act of 2021, or VOCA Fix Act, will help ensure funding to thousands of victim service providers across the country including Safe Horizon.
The Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1984 to provide federal support to state and local programs that assist victims of crime. VOCA established the Crime Victims Fund (CVF) which is a core source of funding for Safe Horizon and thousands of other victim service providers. The CVF is supported through penalties and fines on federal prosecutions, and donations, NOT taxpayer money. Deposits into the CVF have decreased dramatically over the last several years. The VOCA Fix Act is a bipartisan solution that would increase deposits into the CVF and continue funding for services that support millions of survivors each year.
The VOCA Fix Act:
- Adds a new source of revenue for the CVF and makes changes to formula grants supported by the fund.
- Directs revenues collected from deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements to be deposited into the Crime Victims Fund. Currently, such revenues are deposited into the general fund of the Treasury.
- Increases the percentage—from 60% to 75%—of state compensation payments to crime victims in the prior fiscal year used to calculate formula grants for state victim compensation programs.
- Directs states to waive the matching requirement for recipients of state victim assistance formula grants during and for one year after a pandemic-related national emergency. It also allows states to waive the matching requirement pursuant to a policy established by the state.
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