CAC Supporters: Call on Congress to fund CACs
The Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) provides funding for victim services out of the Crime Victims Fund, and it has become an important source of support for CACs across the country. The money in the fund is all nontax dollars–it comes from fines and penalties paid by convicted federal offenders.
Unfortunately, the white-collar criminal prosecutions and fines associated with these crimes (which fill the Crime Victims Fund) are at a two-decade low, meaning the CVF has experienced a number of years of concerningly low deposits. At the same time, the need for these services continues to grow. Because of this continued critical need, Congress passed the bipartisan, bicameral VOCA Fix Act in 2021 to help grow the Fund. This new law now directs all penalties/fines collected by DOJ in criminal prosecutions into the Fund. Without the VOCA fix, the deposit in 2021 would have been $550 million, and the deposit in 2022 would have been only $291 million. But even with these additional deposits, the CVF has not yet recovered to be able to fully fund critical and needed services. The VOCA Fix was an important step, but because of the current VOCA landscape, VOCA cuts are still happening, including possibly 30% or more in cuts this year alone.
Find contact information for your elected officials below to support fully funding VOCA and the Crime Victims Fund.
Members of Congress pay attention to how many constituents care enough to contact them about an issue, so taking a few minutes to call or email your U.S. representative and your two U.S. senators would be a huge help. Questions? Contact National Children’s Alliance (NCA) Director of Government Affairs Denise Edwards at dedwards@nca-online.org.
Serving child abuse victims costs money.
Here’s how much it costs in your state.
Across America, the cost to serve one child at a CAC averages $1,657. Yet in your state, that cost might be less or much more, making the impact of cuts to VOCA and the urgency to fix VOCA different in every state. Cite the figure for your state in contacting your members of Congress, and let them know every dollar cut from VOCA potentially cuts services to a child.
| AL | $ 2,103 | ME | $ 853 | OR | $ 2,784 |
| AK | $ 3,288 | MD | $ 2,340 | PA | $ 1,242 |
| AR | $ 1,221 | MA | $ 1,340 | RI | $ 2,169 |
| AZ | $ 1,591 | MI | $ 1,414 | SC | $ 1,595 |
| CA | $ 2,551 | MN | $ 2,741 | SD | $ 937 |
| CO | $ 1,740 | MS | $ 1,535 | TN | $ 802 |
| CT | $ 3,983 | MO | $ 2,060 | TX | $ 2,205 |
| DE | $ 3,122 | MT | $ 867 | UT | $ 1,219 |
| FL | $ 1,295 | NE | $ 2,168 | VT | $ 1,407 |
| GA | $ 2,041 | NV | $ 289 | VA | $ 1,528 |
| HI | $ 846 | NH | $ 1,317 | WA | $ 1,410 |
| ID | $ 895 | NJ | $ 2,246 | WV | $ 1,327 |
| IL | $ 2,023 | NM | $ 2,658 | WI | $ 798 |
| IN | $ 825 | NY | $ 2,163 | WY | $ 2,259 |
| IA | $ 1,116 | NC | $ 1,927 | ||
| KS | $ 1,373 | ND | $ 1,322 | ||
| KY | $ 2,260 | OH | $ 1,178 | ||
| LA | $ 984 | OK | $ 1,229 |