From the Director’s Desk, March 14, 2024

DARYL FOX: Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to the March 14, 2024, installment of From the Director’s Desk. We’re glad you are able to join us today. All audio lines are muted, as this is a listen-only briefing. For reference, this recording will be posted tomorrow to the OVC website. At this time, it’s my pleasure to introduce Kristina Rose, OVC director, for today’s briefing.

KRISTINA ROSE: Thank you, Daryl.

Hello everyone and an early Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you.

Today, I’m only going to cover a few things in today’s briefing. First, I will give you the latest on the Fiscal Year 24 enacted budget and the President’s FY25 budget that includes a mandatory legislative proposal that I want to talk to you about. Then, I want to talk a little bit about my visit to Puerto Rico. I gave a little preview on that in Jan--last month, and I want to follow up with some of my observations. And then, I’ll wrap up with a few housekeeping items.

We actually do not have updated Crime Victims Fund deposit numbers this month. They have not come in yet, but we expect them today or tomorrow. So, please check back at the OVC website. And as soon as we get them, we will work on getting them uploaded to the website.

So let’s start with the FY24 budget, since this was just signed by the President over the weekend.

So in FY24, the CVF cap is set at $1.353 billion, which is a 29% cut from FY 2023. It contains a one-time transfer to the Office on Violence Against Women for $80 million, leaving 1.273 billion, which is an increase of $73 million over what we had anticipated that we would get. So, the President’s budget and the House and Senate Mark both had it at $1.2, so we’re getting a little bit more than we had anticipated.

What this does is it leaves, for the state VOCA Formula Grant Program, it leaves them with $954 million, which is a 37% cut from FY 2023. The Tribal Victim Services Set-Aside will be set at $67.65 million, and that’s a 29% cut from the previous year. And then, our discretionary fund will be at $50 million, and that’s a 37% cut from 2023.

Funding levels for human trafficking include $88 million for Victims of Trafficking, which is a 7% cut from 23. The Domestic Victims of Trafficking Program is at $7 million, which is the same level as 23, and Preventing Trafficking of Girls is set at $4 million, which is a 20% cut from 23. The total of $99 million for human trafficking funding. 

The Jabara-Heyer funding stream that we use for hate crimes and, specifically, OVC uses it to fund state-run hate crimes hot lines, was set at $9 million, which is a 10% cut from 2023. We get $2 million of that, and the rest goes to BJS for data collection.

The Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Program is at $4 million. It was $5 million last year, so that’s a 20% cut from 23.

Moving into the President’s FY25 budget--I’m going to present this in two parts. So, the first is the actual budget request, and the second part is a legislative proposal that is set to take effect in 2026 that replenishes the CVF so that we can maintain the critical resources we need to support crime victims. 

So, the President’s budget proposes $1.5 billion for the CVF cap, which is an 11% increase over FY24 enacted. This will leave $1.16 billion for the VOCA State Formula Program, which is an increase of 22%; $75 million for the Tribal Victim Services Set-Aside, an 11% increase; and $61 million for our discretionary programs, which is a 22% increase.

For human trafficking, the grand total is $107 million, which is an increase of $8 million over FY24. The Victims of Human Trafficking Program is set at $95 million; Domestic Victims of Trafficking at $7 million. Again, it’s flat this year. And the Preventing Trafficking of Girls is at $5 million. Jabara-Heyer is at $15 million, which is an increase. Again, OVC gets $2 for the hotlines. The Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners Program is back up to $5 million, which is a $1 million increase over 24. 

And in significant news, the Office of the Inspector General, the funding that for the last 7 years or so has been $10 million each year, maybe it’s even longer than that, it might be 9 years, but it’s--there has been $10 million designated for the Inspector General’s Office for them to be able to do the work they need to do to manage and audit the Crime Victims Fund and the VOCA funds that are spent. That has been cut in half in FY25 in the President’s budget, to $5 million, so 50% cut from 24. And we don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing because we do know that there is plenty of resources with OIG to continue the work that they’re doing.

I’m sorry about the--did you hear the sirens going by? That’s just kind of city life, right? 

Now, I want to talk about the second and really exciting part of the FY25 President’s budget. It contains a legislative proposal that will provide $7.3 billion over 5 years to replenish the balance of the CVF, CVF meaning the Crime Victims Fund. This would be distributed over a 5-year period. In addition, the proposal requests an annual appropriation of $2 billion from the Fund to support VOCA programs. So, I want to make it clear that the Fund will be infused with $7.5 billion over 5 years. The cap, they’re calling it an annual appropriation, but it’s still technically a cap, will be set at $2 billion every year. And we will continue to bring funding in through the deposits and the deferred and non-deferred prosecution settlements that we have been.

So, the idea behind all of this is to provide a consistent funding source that will enable service providers and state administering agencies to develop more effective planning and management of their awards. It also would eliminate the fluctuations in spending levels that we have experienced over the past several years and, you know, those create so much uncertainty for folks. And having an annual $2 billion cap would enable us to stabilize the fund for long-term planning.

This proposal also includes a mechanism that would trigger reductions to align spending with revenue if deposits fall below a certain threshold. 

We have done some back-of-the-envelope calculations and, if this plan goes according to plan, we may not have to worry about a 2--anything less than a $2 billion cap on the Fund through the year 2034. Again, the overarching goal of the proposal is to align spending with revenue to protect the Fund but also to offer greater stability in the event of the persistent CVF deposit shortfalls. And I know that this is something that the SAAs have been asking for for a long time. You know, I know that they would love to see more money but I think even more importantly, they would love to see stability to help plan for what is ahead. So that--this gives us a little bit of both.

So, I want to thank the White House and the Office of Management and Budget for acknowledging the problem of the CVF solvency and proposing an idea that offers long-term relief. I applaud their creative thinking that led to this promising proposal.

And I want to give a special thank you to all of the wonderful human beings out there who have made it their priority over the past couple of years to raise awareness around the solvency of the CVF. Your voices mattered, and they were heard. I know we haven’t solved the problem yet, but I believe that we have a very good foundation to work from with this FY25 legislative proposal. I am optimistic for the future of the CVF.

I’m sure you have lots of questions and for that reason, we will be putting together a frequently asked questions document that we will post on our website.

For more information about the President’s FY25 Budget, you can go to OJP.gov. If you have specific questions about the OVC portion, you may send those questions to us at [email protected]. And we did give a briefing earlier this week, both virtually and in person, to stakeholders and were available to answer their questions. There were very good meetings with them.

So now, I’m going to go to my trip to Puerto Rico, and I had mentioned in last month’s broadcast that I visited Puerto Rico in late January and that I’d provide a little more information this month.

The purpose of the trip was to visit one of the U.S. territories that receives VOCA funds because I hadn’t been to one so far. And coincidentally, there was an OJP multioffice site visit planned for Puerto Rico, so I just tagged along with them.

The Puerto Rico Department of Justice arranged five site visits to VOCA-funded subgrantee organizations across the island, and I was accompanied by my chief of staff, Sasha Rutizer, and one of our grant managers, Olga Santiago.

We visited three residential homes for children. And those children had been removed from their homes because of abandonment, or abuse, or economic deprivation. And the children ranged in ages from infants to preschool to adolescents. We also visited a domestic violence shelter that housed women and their children, and we visited one law enforcement-based domestic violence program.

What I found so heartening about the residential homes was the meticulous care that had been taken to create victim-centered, trauma-informed environments for these children in each one. For example, and this is a small thing, but it was indicative of the approach they were taking. But we were asked to keep our voices at a quiet level and not make any sudden or abrupt movements when we were around the children.

Also, there was a strong emphasis on survivor self-determination. For example, two of the residential homes were connected to Montessori schools. If you’re not familiar with Montessori schools, according to the American Montessori Society, Montessori is an education philosophy and practice that fosters rigorous, self-motivated growth for children and adolescents in all areas of their development, with the goal of nurturing each child's natural desire for knowledge and understanding and respect. So in Puerto Rico, in the places that we visited, each child had a unique learning plan, and they were encouraged to move at their own pace, allowing them to gravitate to the activities that interested them the most. And I think for children who have been through trauma—and I don’t think it matters whether it is an infant or an adolescent, when they have the agency to pick and choose the pace at which they learn and at which they get to choose the topics that interest them, I think it is so important from a trauma-informed standpoint. 

I also found it very cool that these schools didn’t just serve the children in the residential homes. They also served the children in the community. They were invited to attend. So by doing this, by bringing the children in the community into the Montessori school that is attached to the residential home, you were building partnerships and getting buy-in from the families in the community and helping to fully integrate all of the children from that community in the school. The DV shelter we visited was also connected to a Montessori school onsite. Even when Mom eventually left the shelter, she was given the option to keep her children in the school there. I met with the teachers. They were so knowledgeable and committed to ensuring that each child had a good education and a good learning experience. 

One residential home we visited for adolescent girls, who had also been removed from their homes for reasons due to abuse, they also served as--they also worked with the community. So they served as the site of the community’s after-school program, meaning that kids going to other schools were driven by bus or car over to the residential home area to do after-school activities there. So it was their way of integrating all of the children of the town and helping to dispel the stigma that is often attached to children who are not living in a traditional household. 

Lastly, I want to mention the law enforcement-based domestic violence program we visited in the municipality of Carolina. Preventing domestic homicides is a high priority for the Puerto Rican Attorney General, and one of the programs is called Proyecto RAMA or Project Rama. It’s a program for high-risk victims of domestic violence that includes a security model as well as a full-blown service model. Using VOCA dollars, the municipality created the RAMA Alert App which can activate specialized emergency services for victims of domestic violence who find themselves in danger. It is connected directly to the 911 system and allows for the transfer of photos, and chats, and other information that can be helpful to the police responding to the scene in that moment. Officers are trained to respond quickly, using a trauma-informed approach. And to enhance the safety of survivors, police officers personally visit the homes of survivors that have a protection order every single day. This enhances the victims’ sense of safety, and we hope that it serves as a deterrent to abusers who may try to return to the home. From what I understand, they had not had a domestic violence homicide since they implemented this program. 

We are so grateful to the Puerto Rico Attorney General, Domingo Emanuelli; his staff, Leonardo Caban-Rodriguez and Kristia Diaz Perez; and U.S. Attorney Stephen Muldrow, for their time, their hospitality, their warmth, and of course, for their coffee, which was amazing. 

And now, for a few housekeeping items.

I hope you will check out a new series of infographics from BJS and OVC using data from the 2019 National Survey of Victim Service Providers. The infographics provide a snapshot of victim services provided by five types of providers: nonprofit or faith-based; governmental; hospital, medical, or emergency; campus; and Tribal. You can find a link to them in OVC’s March “Featured Resources” under the “News & Events” section of the OVC website. 

And registration is now open for the National Crime Victims’ Rights Week Candlelight Vigil and the National Crime Victims’ Service Awards Ceremony. The vigil is scheduled for April 24th at 7 p.m., and the awards ceremony is scheduled for April 25th at 3 p.m. Once again, both events will be held on the National Mall, on the panel closest to the Capitol. And you can visit ovc.ojp.gov/ncvrw for the registration link.

And then, don’t forget that you can review and comment for an additional 22 days on the Proposed Rule on Crime Victim Compensation, so that’s through April 5th. And you can find a link to it under the “Announcements” section on the OVC website.

So, I want to thank you all for joining me today, allowing me a little bit of extra time with you. Until next time, as always, I’m grateful for your efforts to help crime survivors find their justice.