VOCA Funding

Current Status/Action News:

FY 2014

The Administration's requested FY 2014 spending proposal asks to increase the VOCA cap to $800 million (from the 2013 cap of $730 million). Of that:

  • $71 million of the increase would be used for specific initiatives:
    • $25 million for supplemental victims' services and other victim-related programs and initiatives,
    • $20 million for tribal assistance for victims of violence,
    • $10 million for victims of trafficking grants focused on domestic victims
    • up to 2 percent ($16 million) for research, evaluation or statistical purposes related to crime victims and related programs.

In addition:

  • The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is projecting that sequestration in 2014 for mandatory, direct spending programs would result in a 7.3 percent reduction, or $58 million for the Crime Victims Fund (based on the proposed $800 million cap).
  • The Administration is projecting that $60 million will be taken from the Crime Victims Fund for DOJ management and administrative costs, further reducing the amount available for the core VOCA-authorized programs.

Taken together, these costs (sequestration, new set asides and M&A), effectively reduces the proposed $800 million VOCA cap to $611 million for the core VOCA-authorized programs.

NAVAA Position
Consistent with its longstanding policy, NAVAA does not support the creation of any new set asides from the Crime Victims Fund. Notwithstanding the merits of the individual proposals or initiatives, NAVAA believes the original and primary purpose of the Crime Victims Fund is to support services to victims of all types of crimes throughout the nation by use of state formula grants. VOCA state victim assistance grants have not even kept pace with inflation, let alone the increasing need assistance services. State assistance grants in 2012 were 30 percent less in real dollars than grants in 2000. We therefore believe that the highest priority should be given to restoring funding for VOCA state victim assistance grants. A 2014 VOCA cap of $1 billion would restore state victim assistance grants to the equivalent in today's dollars to the same funding level as in 2000.

FY 2013

Congress has passed and the President has signed the bill to keep the Federal government operating through September 30, 2013. As passed, the cap on spending from the Crime Victims Fund in fiscal year 2013 was set at $730 million. Although this is a $25 million increase over the $705 million cap in 2012, several factors may have a serious impact on VOCA programs:

  • The spending bill incorporates a 5.1 percent sequestration which will reduce the amount available from the Crime Victims Fund by $37.2 million.
  • In addition, DOJ grant managment and administrative (M&A) costs assesed against the Crime Victims Fund in 2013 are estimated at nearly $57 million.
  • Because of sequestration, the Department of Justice had announced it intended to "donate" grant funds to avoid furloughs in the Bureau of Prison. It now appears that DOJ has found other funds to transfer and that grant funds will not be diverted to other uses.

Management and Administrative Costs (M&A)

In 2012, the Office of Justice Programs allocated VOCA M&A so that some VOCA authorized programs (i.e. Children's Justice Act and state crime victim compensation grants) were not reduced but state victim assistance grants were assessed a disproportionately large share. The 2013 spending bill directs OJP to ensure that its M&A assessment is equitable and, "for programs funded through the Crime Victims Fund that the assessment reflects a fair representation of the share of each program devoted to common M&A costs."

If OJP applies the same method in 2013 as it did in 2012, state assistance grants will be approximately $383 million, about the same as 2012 grants. If it uses the more equitable allocation, the amount available for state victim assistance grants in 2013 is estimated to be about $398 million, a 4.7 percent increase over the 2012 grants (remembering that the 2012 grants were an 11 percent reduction from the previous year).

Fewer Victims to be Served

It is possible to provide a rough estimate of the incremental impact that each of these funding reductions—sequestration and M&A—has on the ability of victim service agencies to provide critical assistance to crime victims.  According to Office for Victims of Crime’s National Performance Reports (2007-2011), the number of crime victims receiving VOCA-funded services averaged nearly 3.8 million victims of all types of crimes annually.  The amount of VOCA victim assistance grants for these funding cycles averaged $370,300,841 annually resulting in an average grant amount of $98.52 per victim served. 

The sequestration will cut the amount available for state victim assistance grants by $37.2 which, it can be projected, will result in an estimated 377,891 fewer victims of all types of crimes receiving VOCA-funded assistance services attributable solely to sequestration. Similarly, a reduction of $56.9 million diverted for M&A will leave 577,951 victims without these services.

Taken together, sequestration and M&A could diminish the capacity of the nation's victim assistance agencies to provide VOCA assistance-funded services to more than 955,000 crime victims.

Type of Crime Average No. of Victims Served Before Cuts No. Fewer Victims Served After Cuts

Sequestration

M&A

TOTAL
TOTAL 3,758,622 377,891 577,951 955,843
Child Physical Abuse 165,336 16,623 25,423 42,046
Child Sexual Abuse 385,586 38,767 59,290 98,057
DUI/DWI Crashes 67,514 6,788 10,381 17,169
Domestic Violence 1,780,227 178,984 273,740 452,724
Adult Sexual Assault 212,480 21,363 32,672 54,035
Elder Abuse 46,354 4,660 7,128 11,788
Adults Molested as Children 70,915 7,130 10,904 18,304
Survivors of Homicide Victims 90,718 9,121 13,949 23,070
Robbery 167,945 16,885 25,824 42,710
Assault 304,414 30,606 46,809 77,415
Other 467,131 46,965 71,829 118,795

 

Documents

(All documents in PDF format unless otherwise indicated in square brackets.) [Top]

Media Coverage

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Background

  • The Crime Victim Fund helps an average of 3.7 million victims of all types of crime every year.
  • The Fund comes from the collection of Federal criminal fines; not taxpayers.
  • Congress has repeatedly pledged that all amounts deposited into the Fund would remain available for victim services.

The Victims of Crime Act of 1984 is the Federal government's principle means of providing support for programs that serve victims of all types of crime. Each year, Federal criminal fines, forfeitures and special assessments are deposited into the Crime Victims Fund (the Fund). These offender generated revenues -- NOT TAXPAYER DOLLARS -- are used to support these programs:

  • Children’s Justice Act -- to improve the investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases;
  • U.S. Attorney’s victim/witness coordinators -- to provide assistance to victims involved in Federal criminal prosecutions by funding 170 FTE United States Attorney Office victim assistance coordinators;;
  • F.B.I. victim assistance specialists-- to help victims during Federal criminal investigations by funding 112 FTE victim assistance specialists;
  • Federal victim notification system -- to provide automated notification to victims of the status of Federal criminal investigations and prosecutions and the offender's status in the Federal prison system;
  • OVC discretionary grants -- to support national scope training and technical assistance and to provide services to victims of Federal crimes;
  • State compensation formula grants -- to supplement State funds used to reimburse victims of violent crimes for medical expenses, mental health counseling, lost wages, loss of support and funeral/burial costs;
  • State victim assistance formula grants -- to support direct victim assistance services -- such as counseling, emergency shelter, rape crisis centers, help in participating in the criminal justice system. Approximately 3.5 million - 4 million crime victims receive these services by more than 4,000 agencies annually;
  • Management & administration (M&A) - For 2012 and future years, Congress directed DOJ to use grant funds to cover its grant M&A.
  • Antiterrorism Emergency Reserve -- to replenish a special $50 milllion reserve to assist victims of domestic and international terrorism and mass violence. The needs for this reserve is demonstrated by Minnesota's request for supplemental compensation funding in response to the Red Lake, MN school shooting

Prior to FY 2000, all of the money deposited into the Crime Victims Fund from the collection of Federal criminal fines, forfeitures and assessments, was allocated the following fiscal year according to a formula in the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) statute. Because of wide fluctuations in the amount deposited, beginning in FY 2000, Congress began imposing a limitation or "cap" on the amount of Fund deposits that could be obligated the following year.

Fiscal Year
Prv. Yr. Deposits
Cap
  
Fiscal
Year
Prv. Yr. Deposits
Cap
2000
$985,185,354
$500,000,000
  
2007
649,631,046
625,000,000
2001
776,954,858
537,500,000
  
2008
1,017,977,475
590,000,000
2002
544,437,015
550,000,000
  
2009**
896,316,825
635,000,000
2003
519,466,480
600,000,000
  
2010
1,745,677,602
705,000,000
2004
361,341,967
621,312,500*
  
2011
2,362,337,940
705,000,000
2005
833,695,013
620,000,000*
  
2012
1,998,220,205
705,000,000
2006
668,268,054
625,000,000
  
2013
2,795,547,045
  
* Includes rescissions.
** Does not include $100 million in Recovery Act funding

Congress said it was delaying use of the deposits above the cap in order "to protect against wide fluctuations in receipts into the Fund, and to ensure that a stable level of funding will remain available for these programs in future years." [Conference Report 106-479] Congress also amended the VOCA statute to reflect the preservation of all deposits for future VOCA programs.

The amounts remaining in the Fund are carried over from year to year to be used when Fund deposits are less than the next year's cap. Three times since caps were imposed -- in FYs 2002, 2003 and 2004 -- Congress has relied on this "rainy day reserve" because of insufficient deposits. However, thanks largely to a handful of very large cases, deposits into the Fund have escalated at unprecedented levels.  As a result, the balance in the Fund continues to grow:

Fund Opening Balance (millions)
FY
    
FY
  
2000
485
  
2007
1,333
2001
1,300
  
2008
1,730
2002
1,330
  
2009
1,852
2003
1,311
  
2010
3,148
2004
1,080
  
2011
4,801
2005
1,261
  
2012
5,767
2006
1,307
  
2013
7,444

This is important because the VOCA statute contains a rather complicated formula that determines how much each VOCA authorized program area receives each year. State victim assistance grant -- the grants that support thousands of direct victim services -- in effect gets whatever's left over after the other VOCA-authorized programs are funded. As a result, unless the cap is high enough, state VOCA assistance grants are cut as new programs are added or other VOCA-dependent costs increase.

Despite tremendous growth in the Crime Victims Fund balance, lack of adequate VOCA funding means fewer crime victims have access to essential assistance services.   In fact, more than 507,000 fewer victims received VOCA funded services in 2010 than in 2007.

Fiscal Year
VOCA assistance funds*
No. VOCA Funded Agencies
No. Victims Served
2006
395.9
4,397
3,813,128
2007
370.6
4,201
4,116,648
2008
309.0
4,358
3,780,068
2009
363.8
4,020
3,526,736
Recovery Act
47.5
568
38,307
2010 412.1 3,730 3,609,421
2011 428.1 3,780 3,760,235
* in millions

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Contact Congress

Call, email or fax your Congressional delegation and urge them to fully support crime victims by raising the VOCA cap. Find out how to contact your Senator and Representatives (often just by entering your zip code) by going to these web sites:

Connect to their offices through this toll-free number: 1-800-247-2971

For media inquiries about VOCA and the Crime Victims Fund: contact: NAVAA Executive Director Steve Derene at steve@navaa.org or call 608-233-2245.


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©NAVAA is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization whose mission is "to advance education, research, and public service to assure accessible quality services for crime victims nationwide, to strengthen exchange of information and communication among its members and to provide its members with training and technical assistance to effectively respond to the issues and challenges of supporting those services."