The VOCA Fix

On July 22, 2021, President Biden signed the VOCA Fix to Sustain the Crime Victims Fund Act of 2021 (VOCA Fix). The VOCA Fix became effective immediately and the provisions of the Act—

• Required any funds that would otherwise be deposited in the general fund of the U.S. Treasury collected pursuant to federal deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements to go into the Crime Victims Fund.
• Provided the Attorney General with the authority to provide no-cost extensions to all VOCA award recipients.
• Allowed state VOCA Administrators to waive, or requires them to waive, subgrantee match requirements.
• Increased the federal grant calculation for funding to victim compensation programs to 75 percent of state-funded payouts.
• Instructed the OVC not to deduct restitution payments recovered by state victim compensation funds when calculating victim compensation awards.
• Clarified that state programs may waive the requirement to promote victim cooperation with law enforcement in order for victims to receive compensation.

Following the signing, OVC—

• recalculated the FY 2021 formula allocations;
• issued 3 bulletins clarifying the match waiver, law enforcement cooperation exception, and community violence intervention support; and
• began tracking receipts from federal deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements.