Child abuse victims need our help. This bill would head off disastrous funding cuts

As a member of Congress, one of my most important responsibilities is protecting those who cannot protect themselves, especially young children in need. The ongoing coronavirus crisis is driving an epidemic of child abuse as victims spend more time at home and out of the watchful eye of caring teachers, pediatricians, extended families, and neighbors. This heightened risk of child abuse is being greatly exacerbated by impending cuts to funding for Victims of Crime Act, or VOCA, grants.

Congress must address the looming crisis in victim services. Here in Missouri, we could see cuts as large as 25% over the next year, and funding for VOCA faces serious long-term sustainability issues. The human cost of failing to prevent these cuts falls on innocent children. We in Congress have a duty to protect them.

Changing priorities at the Department of Justice are destabilizing the CVF or Crime Victims Fund, and threatening programs for crime victims. VOCA grants are funded by federal criminal monetary penalties — not by taxpayers. However, with the Department of Justice increasingly seeking non-prosecution and deferred prosecution agreements instead of prosecuting federal crimes, the CVF is running dangerously low. This means that VOCA grants are facing catastrophic cuts.

Through the Crime Victims Fund, VOCA has funded essential victim services such as medical care, mental health care and victim advocacy for the nation’s crime victims for the last 35 years. States receive these funds to provide care to Americans who have suffered traumatic crimes — including those most vulnerable victims, children who have experienced sexual or physical abuse.

That’s why stable VOCA funding is so critical. Organizations such as the National Children’s Alliance have helped advocate for these important funds, but they need our help to see this mission through. In 2019, more than 371,000 children received critical services from children’s advocacy centers as they healed from the trauma of abuse. Children’s advocacy centers depend on VOCA funding to provide comprehensive care to abused children while working with prosecutors and law enforcement to hold offenders accountable. If the CVF becomes insolvent, as it will without a fix, tens of thousands of children would go without care. In a time in which children are most at risk, it is imperative that children’s advocacy centers receive the resources they need to continue providing these essential services.

I have seen how urgent this issue is to victims of traumatic crimes, so I introduced the VOCA Fix Act in the House of Representatives to ensure abused children and other victims no longer have to languish in this crisis. My bill would simply allow criminal settlements from federal non-prosecution and deferred prosecution agreements to be used to support victims, just as they could if these cases were prosecuted. I was able to quickly get this legislation passed in the House, and now I call on my colleagues in the Senate to take immediate action and pass the VOCA Fix Act so victims know they can depend on us to continue to be their advocate in Congress.

I urge my colleagues in Congress to join me and other champions for children’s advocacy centers so that thousands of abused children — and many more down the road — are not abandoned.

There should be no further delay in getting the VOCA Fix Act signed into law. As a nation, we have the opportunity to turn to a new page. Let’s start by providing our kids with the help they need to heal and live the lives they deserve.

Republican Ann Wagner represents Missouri’s 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

This story was originally published May 15, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Child abuse victims need our help. This bill would head off disastrous funding cuts."