Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act of 2025

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner) so much for this piece of legislation. I thank her for all the really good hard work that she has done in rallying the troops to do the right thing. I thank her very much for taking care of our victims and making sure they have these provisions. I, too, have been a victim, so I thank her personally.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 909, the Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act of 2025.

Established by the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 to provide funding for State victim compensation and assistance programs, the Crime Victims Fund does not rely on taxpayer dollars. Instead, it is funded by fines, monetary penalties, and assessments paid by convicted Federal defendants, as well as forfeited bail bonds and other gifts and donations.

For four decades, the Crime Victims Fund has been a lifeline, providing money through grants to States, local governments, individuals, and other entities. It supports rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, child advocacy programs, and services for survivors like me of homicide, assault, and human trafficking in every State and in every territory. It pays for counseling, emergency shelters, legal aid, and lost wages.

In short, the Crime Victims Fund is the bedrock of our Nation's promise to help victims rebuild their lives, serving nearly 4 million victims of crime every year. That is a staggering number, so I want to say it again: 4 million victims of crime every year.

Over the last decade, the fund has faced a severe and sustained crisis. Stemming from changes in prosecution practices, revenues have plummeted. Meanwhile, the needs of victims have only grown.

In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of a devastating cycle. Annual distributions to States for victim services and assistance have been cut by 40 percent, forcing programs to close their doors, lay off their staff, and turn victims away in their greatest and most desperate hours of need.

H.R. 909 is a necessary and responsible solution that is not just fiscally sound but profoundly just. This bill would address the fluctuations in deposits that continue to threaten the fund and our ability to provide vital support to victims of crime.

It would provide critical stabilization of the fund by authorizing an infusion of unobligated funds collected through the False Claims Act to halt the immediate bleeding. This stopgap measure will prevent further catastrophic cuts to victim services, ensuring that hotlines remain open and advocates remain at their posts while we implement and continue to work on a long-term fix.

It includes essential oversight and accountability measures. By requiring regular reporting that includes an audit, we can guarantee transparency in how these funds are being managed and distributed, and we can be sure that the money reaches frontline organizations that are doing the hard work on the ground. This is lifesaving work that they are doing, with efficiency and integrity.

Speaking as a beneficiary of the good works done as a result of the existence of the Crime Victims Fund and a proud cosponsor of H.R. 909, there is truly an urgent need to pass this legislation. Without Federal funding, critical victim services are simply going to vanish.

I am grateful to the sponsors of this bill and to all of our colleagues for their bipartisanship in doing what is right to help our victims and for their efforts.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. McBATH. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am sure my colleagues on both sides of the aisle agree that neither saving lives nor providing support to victims of crime are partisan issues. Victimization knows no political party.

The instability of the Crime Victims Fund threatens red states as well as blue states alike, urban centers and also rural communities equally. Passage of the Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act is a declaration of our own common values.

This bill says that our commitment to this Nation's victims is not just a line in a budget subject to prosecutorial trends.

I would like to say when my family and I spent the 2\1/2\ years in court that we did in Jacksonville, Florida, when my son was murdered in November of 2012, the Crime Victims Fund of Florida helped to support the representative and to provide the representative who spent day after day with us making sure that we had the resources and the means that we needed, making sure that we understood that the State of Florida was standing there to support us in spite of the terrible tragedy that we had suffered. That money, those funds, were allocated from the Crime Victims Fund.

So, once again, having actually lived through this experience, I know how important it is to make sure that we pass this legislation.

It says that our first thought is to bind the wounds of the injured, the helpless, and the innocent.

We owe it to the survivors who need counseling and stable housing to help them sleep through the night again. We owe it to the parents who must bury their child or their children or their loved one, such as I have. We owe it to the countless silent sufferers who have yet to come forward but who must know that help will be there when they need it.

This is a commonsense solution that will ensure victims have access to the services that they need to heal, to reclaim their lives again, and to feel secure enough to speak out about their pursuing the justice that they deserve.

I ask all Members of this body to support this lifesaving bill. I hope that the Senate will take it up and pass it as quickly as possible.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source