Issue Position: Victim's Rights

Issue Position

Protecting victims of crime should be a top priority for legislatures at all levels of government. When I came to Washington in 2005, there was a void in leadership on crime victim issues. After speaking with some of my colleagues, I gathered several like-minded representatives together and co-founded the first Congressional Victims' Rights Caucus. This is a bipartisan caucus that seeks to represent crime victims in the United States through legislation that reflects their interests, rights and needs. Furthermore, the Victims' Rights Caucus is designed to provide an ongoing dialogue between Congress and national victim assistance programs to enhance public education initiatives and communication. This way, our communities can better understand the impact of crime on victims and get involved in crime prevention and victim assistance. To gather these public initiatives into a high profile campaign, I sponsored H. J. Res. 119 which supports the initiatives and goals of National Crime Victims' Rights Week in order to increase public awareness of the rights, needs, and concerns of victims and survivors of crime in the United States.

The Crime Victim's Fund was started in 1984 to support crime victim assistance programs, helping over 3.8 million people each year. The fund also takes the burden off of victims for financial costs associated with crime, such as unreimbursed medical expenses, lost wages and funeral costs. Instead of being supported by taxpayer dollars, the fund is sustained through the collection of criminal fines and I want to ensure that it continues to be applied to the people it was meant to help. I was an original co-sponsor of H.R. 2941 during the 110th Congress, which safeguards the Crime Victims Fund and keeps it from being used in the general budget to pay for other expenses. In each of the past four years I have been in Congress, I led the effort to appropriate funds so that the Violence Against Women Act could be renewed, ensuring that national sexual assault and domestic violence programs have adequate funding to continue their efforts in our communities.

Domestic violence is an area of particular concern that I think Congress can make significant headway in stamping out. Many people are at risk of losing their job because of a dangerous living situation with an abusive partner, so I co-sponsored the Job Protection for Survivors Act that prevents employers from firing someone for being a victim of domestic violence. Since a person dealing with domestic violence often has to make drastic changes in their living situation and employment to escape the vicious cycle of abuse, I co-sponsored H.R. 4016, which provides unemployment insurance access to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence or stalking if they opt for it.

One of the best ways to uncover and stamp out domestic violence is through community education and awareness. H. Res. 590, which I co-sponsored, establishes October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and commits Congress to raise awareness of domestic violence in the United States and its devastating effects on families and communities.

Finally, for those parents who have gone through the indescribable grief of losing a son or daughter to homicide, my co-sponsorship of H.R. 3364 will allow them to claim their child as a dependent for up to 5 years, as a small gesture to ease the burden of funeral expenses. Victims of crime are our sons and daughters, husbands, brothers, wives and mothers struggling to survive in the aftermath of crime and they deserve our help.

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