Support the Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act

Congress is considering legislation to stabilize the Crime Victims Fund established by the Victims of Crime Act, also known as VOCA. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) utilizes funds from this program to support victims of the violent crime of drunk and drug-impaired driving. We need your help to urge Congress to pass the Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act to avoid massive looming cuts to the Crime Victims Fund.

How the Crime Victims Fund helps victims and survivors? MADD provides a supportive service to impaired driving victims and survivors, at no charge, every four minutes. Our victim services specialists provide crisis intervention, emotional support, court accompaniment and education around the legal, financial and physical impacts of these crimes, peer support groups and connections, and appropriate referrals and assistance with resources for continued long-term needs. In addition, this fund helps organizations provide critical services to victims of other violent crimes.

How will the Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act help fund VOCA? The Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act, introduced in both the U.S. House of Representatives (HR 8061) and the Senate (S 4514), adds a new funding stream to the VOCA Crime Victims Fund. It directs unused funds collected through the False Claims Act into the Crime Victims Fund through FY2029. The Crime Victims Fund is currently financed through fines, settlements, bonds, and other monetary penalties collected through federal criminal prosecutions. While deposits into the fund fluctuate annually, there has been a drastic decline in recent years. According to the Office for Victims of Crime, the Crime Victims Fund’s end-of-year balance for 2024 has decreased 90% since 2017.

Why VOCA is important? This decrease in funding for crime victim services coincides with a 33% surge in drunk driving deaths since 2019. The drunk driving crisis on our roadways kills or injures someone every 78 seconds across the United States. This legislative proposal will help ensure that victims and survivors of impaired driving and other violent crimes receive the services they need.

How you can help? Use the form on this page to urge your U.S. Senators and Representative to support the Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act.

First Name

Last Name

Address 1

City

State

Zip Code

Email Address

Mobile Number

Would you like to receive emails from MADD?

Yes

{contact_data~title} {contact_data~firstName} {contact_data~lastName} {contact_data~suffix},
{contact_data~organization}

As a constituent and supporter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, I ask you to support the bipartisan Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act authored in the House by Congresswoman Wagner and co-sponsored by Representatives Moran, Dingell, Bice, and Costa. The House bill (HR 8061), introduced in April, now has 134 additional co-sponsors. The Senate version (S 4514) was introduced in June by Senator Richard Durbin and co-sponsored by Senator Lisa Murkowski.

MADD serves victims with help from the VOCA Crime Victims Fund, a non-taxpayer federally funded program. VOCA funds help MADD provide services to victims of drunk and drugged driving 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our victim services specialists provide crisis intervention, emotional support, court accompaniment and education around the legal, financial and physical impacts of these crimes, peer support groups and connections, and appropriate referrals and assistance with resources for continued long-term needs. This legislative proposal will allow MADD to continue to provide these services.

Please also support restoring VOCA funding to the 2023 level of $1.9 billion and reject proposals that use the VOCA fund to pay for other Department of Justice programs.

I believe fully funding VOCA is important because the battle against drunk driving is far from over. Since 2019, drunk driving deaths increased 33% in the United States resulting in 13,524 preventable deaths in 2022.

The impaired driving crisis on our roadways is a public health crisis. Please support the Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act and restoration of the VOCA fund to ensure victims of the violent crime of impaired driving receive the services they need.

Thank you,

{user_data~First Name} {user_data~Last Name},
{user_data~Address 1},
{user_data~City},{user_data~State} {user_data~Zip Code}