[Vision2020] CRAPO AND WASDEN WORK TO HELP IDAHO CRIME VICTIMS

[lfalen]

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                      CONTACT:
Susan Wheeler (202) 224-5150

April 20, 2006
Laura Thurston Goodroe (202) 224-7500

 

 

CRAPO AND WASDEN WORK TO HELP 

IDAHO CRIME VICTIMS


Both co-author letters to prevent rescission of Crime Victims Fund 


 

Boise - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo together with Senator Patrick Leahy
(D-Vermont) have authored a bipartisan letter calling on the Senate
appropriators to save the Crime Victims Fund from rescission in the
FY2007 Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill.  "Money
deposited into the Crime Victims Fund comes from fines and forfeitures
in federal courts and is allocated out to crime victims' services-a
total of $3 million in Idaho alone in 2005," said Crapo.  "This money is
not taxpayer dollars and should not be moved into the general fund as
the Administration has proposed."

 

Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden has also co-authored and
sponsored a letter to the attorneys general of all 50 states and the
U.S. territories seeking their support for the continued use of the
offender-generated Crime Victims Fund exclusively for the benefit of
crime victims.  "The Crime Victims Fund is for the benefit of crime
victims and should not be appropriated for any other purpose," Wasden
said.  "It is wrong to balance the Federal budget on the backs of
Idahoans and other Americans who are innocent victims of crime."

 

Money from the Fund helps programs across Idaho and is administered at
the state level by the Idaho Council on Domestic Violence and Victims
Assistance.  Approximately $2 million of it goes for victim assistance
and $1 million is spent compensating victims of crime in Idaho.  

 

According to Council Executive Director Diane Blumel, forty-eight
programs serving over 5,000 victims during 2005 depended on the Crime
Victims Fund.  "The programs provided counseling, shelter, support and
advocacy for all victims of crime including domestic violence, child
abuse and sexual assault," said Blumel.  "Outside of the Fund, there are
no other funding sources that provide for the scope of services offered
at local or state levels.  Current fiscal and program restraints at
local levels emphasize the critical and essential services that the Fund
provides.  Creating a fund based on collection of fines and other
penalties in our federal criminal system has benefited crime victims
through services and compensation.   Senator Crapo has long-championed
the rights of crime victims, speaking for those who have no other voice.
Preventing the rescission of this Fund is a top priority for all who
administer victims' services programs in Idaho."

 

The Crime Victims Fund was established by the Victims of Crime Act (P.L.
98-473) in 1984 for crime victims.  The money in the fund is supplied by
federal criminal fines and forfeitures in federal courts, not taxpayer
dollars.  In the past two years, the Administration has proposed that
the entire balance of the fund, currently over $1 billion dollars, be
rescinded and moved to the general fund.  

 

 

# # #

 

 

 

FOR INTERESTED MEDIA: A radio actuality is available by calling
1-800-545-1267.  Press 327 at any time during or after the greeting and
instructions.  You can also access the actuality through the Internet at
http://src.senate.gov <http://src.senate.gov/>  in the Radio Links.

 

To directly link to this news release, please use the following address:
http://www.crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/release_full.cfm?id=25384
2

 

 

 




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