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President Joe Biden recently signed House Resolution 1652, the Victims of Crime (VOCA) Act, into law in order to sustain the Crime Victims Fund Act of 2021.
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Houston) tweeted that the law, which she proposed, would help victims of assault and other associated crimes seek help.
“Today President Biden signed my bill, HR 1652,” she wrote. “This VOCA Fix Act will bring more money to programs benefiting victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, drunk driving and other crimes across the nation.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and a bipartisan bicameral group of lawmakers attended the signing ceremony.
Biden said that he hopes the passage of the bill would spur hope for victims and noted that as the San Francisco DA, and the California Attorney General, Harris expanded support for victims of crime and launched one of the nation’s first medical centers focused on treating childhood trauma caused by violence in a home or in a community.
“Today, I think is a day of hope,” he said. “And I mean that. A day of hope and healing for victims, or crime and organizations that support those victims of crime.”
This bill adds a new source of revenue for the Crime Victims Fund and makes changes to formula grants supported by the fund.
Biden added that it was important that victims were supported after suffering harrowing ordeals.
“When someone commits a crime, it’s — it’s not enough to bring the predator to justice, we also need to support the victims,” he said.
The objective of the bill is to send revenues collected from deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements to be deposited into the Crime Victims Fund — in order to refill its coffers.
Currently, such revenues are deposited into the general fund of the treasury.