HJR 48-CRIME VICTIMS FUND PRESERVATION ACT    VICE-CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI announced the consideration of HJR 48 3:12:53 PM REPRESENTATIVE BETH KERTTULA, sponsor of HJR 48, said this resolution was drafted after a similar National Council of State Legislatures (NCSL) resolution passed unanimously last December. She related that a friend who works with victims recognized that the National Victims of Crime fund was growing, but the money wasn't flowing through to the states. HJR 48 recognizes the effort in Congress to see that the money is used more productively while continuing to sustain the fund. SAMANTHA ENGILSHOE, First Alaskans Institute fellow and intern for Representative Kerttula, thanked the committee for hearing HJR 48. She reported the following: For more than 25 years the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) fund has been a protected and dedicated source of funding for crime victim services. Each year VOCA dollars are distributed to states to support two important types of programs - crime victim compensation programs and victim assistance programs. The VOCA fund is financed by a collection of fines, forfeitures, and other penalties paid by federal criminal offenders - not by taxpayer revenue. Because the fund is comprised of offender penalties and fines, the amount deposited into the fund fluctuates from year to year. In 2000, Congress started annual obligations from the fund, saving the amount collected over the cap to ensure the fund's stability. Currently, the VOCA fund has an accumulated balance of nearly 3 billion dollars. Under the VOCA statutory formula for the annual distribution of VOCA funds, state-assisted grants are dependent on the size of the cap and the amount available for those grants is, in effect, whatever remains after other programs have been funded. Unless the cap is high enough, state VOCA assistance grants are cut as other VOCA-dependent costs increase under the cap programs and earmarks are added. Despite unprecedented deposits into the fund, inadequate caps led to severe cutbacks in VOCA victim assistance grants from 2006 to 2008 causing a devastating impact on programs providing direct services to crime victims. At the same time as those state victim assistance grants were cut by $87 million, the fund grew more than $700 million. That balance would have otherwise been available for direct services were the cap minimum higher. Under the Crime Victims Fund Preservation Act, the VOCA statute would establish minimum funding levels for fiscal years 2010 through 2014 steadily drawing down a portion of the accumulated balance. It is projected by the Office of Management and Budget that even with these minimum caps, the fund will have a balance of at least $1.3 billion at the end of 2014 insuring the fund's sustainability without the need for other revenue sources. There is strong state support for the Crime Victims Fund Preservation Act including support by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, the Alaska Department of Public Safety, and both state Attorney General Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young have signed letters of support for the federal legislation. Representatives from the State of Alaska Violent Crimes Compensation Board and the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault are here to testify to the importance of additional resources for their statewide efforts. 3:16:01 PM LAUREE MORTON, Program Coordinator, Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Department of Public Safety (DPS), said she serves as the VOCA assistance coordinator for the state. She explained that VOCA assistance funds are distributed to states on a formula basis - $500,000 per state and a prorated amount based on population. Alaska typically receives between $1 million and $1.2 million annually. During the 2009 federal fiscal year, VOCA funds were used to provide services to 5,779 violent crime victims and in the 2010 state fiscal year, 18 community-based victim service programs are using VOCA funds to fund staff and provide services for victims of violent crimes primarily at AWAKE in Anchorage, IAC in Fairbanks, and AWARE in Juneau. uses VOCA funds to support their legal advocate. 3:18:57 PM MS. MORTON provided several examples to demonstrate how VOCA funds are being used. She explained that IAC in Fairbanks is a member of the sexual assault response team that responded to 264 sexual assaults during federal FY09. The IAC VOCA-funded advocate was able to go to the hospital, meet with the victim, and be with her or him during the sexual assault nurse examiner forensic exam. In another example she related how the children- focused VOCA advocate at AWAKE helped a mother who was a victim of domestic violence file a Violent Crimes Compensation Board claim to get counseling for her child who had witnessed the domestic violence and was traumatized and withdrawn. The VOCA advocate worked with the counselor to help the child work through the trauma and ultimately reengage in school and with other children. MS. MORTON summarized that a graduated cap will allow sustainability of the fund and enough growth to stabilize funds to states. This is important, she concluded. 3:20:34 PM CHAIR WIELECHOWSKI closed public testimony and announced he would hold HJR 48 in committee. 3:20:53 PM There being no further business to come before the committee, Vice-Chair Wielechowski adjourned the meeting at 3:20 p.m.