Weekly Column: Safeguarding Resources For Idaho Crime Victims

Each year, Idahoans and Americans throughout our country raise awareness about support for crime victims and reenergize efforts to reduce crime and honor victims and their advocates.  National Crime Victims Week in April and Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October are some of the key opportunities to reflect on progress and advance our shared purpose.  However, two efforts I joined in recent months to safeguard victims assistance funding are a reminder that every day we must vigilantly work to ensure resources intended for victim recovery reach the victims they are intended to help.

In 1984, Congress passed the Victims of Crimes Act, known as VOCA, that established the Crime Victims Fund (CVF).  The CVF provides grants to states to cover the cost of victim recovery resources, including counseling services, legal assistance, funeral expenses and more.  The funds are distributed through thousands of agencies that assist victims of crime.  The CVF is a taxpayer-neutral fund; its balance is comprised of fines and penalties collected through federal criminal convictions, deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements and settlements. 

I have worked steadily with Idaho leaders against domestic violence and child abuse and fellow senators to protect the fund from those who would like to borrow from or use these funds for other purposes.  And, it is clear we cannot relent on these efforts.  U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) data reveals the agency has redirected money intended for the CVF, which is already running a historically low balance.    

Therefore, I joined Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) in admonishing the DOJ to maintain adequate funding to compensate crime victims.  We stressed that, “Congress has acted time and again to ensure that the CVF has adequate funding streams; yet, the Justice Department apparently hasn’t done the work necessary to ensure funds that should be deposited in the CVF are, in fact, deposited.  Simply put, this is absolutely unacceptable.”  We pressed the DOJ for a detailed explanation of the movement of these critical funds. 

As we await answers from the DOJ, I also joined in requesting the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct a review of the CVF and the DOJ’s management of it.  We asked that the GAO’s inquiry include an assessment of the management and uses of CVF funds over the past 10 years.  Thankfully, the GAO has agreed to review how the deposits and balance of the CVF have reached such historically low levels and the financial management and administration of the fund to determine how best to fix the issues facing the CVF.  As we stated in our request, “Resolving these issues is critically important to ensure victims and survivors of crime have access to resources to help them heal.”  

As we seek answers and a stop to misdirection of funds intended to help crime victims, I will continue to do all I can to protect these resources.  I credit the partnerships with Idaho leaders against domestic violence and child abuse and my fellow senators who have assisted in this effort for making progress in our work to protect these designated funds.

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