Sponsors (32)
The bill directs additional near-term federal recoveries into the Crime Victims Fund to expand victim compensation and services, but does so by diverting money away from Treasury receipts and qui tam payments and only for a limited (through 2030) period, creating fiscal trade-offs and planning uncertainty.
Crime victims — particularly low-income victims — would receive increased funding for compensation and victim-assistance programs because specified declinations and certain False Claims Act recoveries would be routed into the Crime Victims Fund through Sept. 30, 2030.
Less money would be available to reimburse the government and to pay qui tam (whistleblower) relators if recoveries are diverted to the Crime Victims Fund, reducing funds that would otherwise go back to the Treasury or to relators.
Routing funds that otherwise would flow to the Treasury into the Victims Fund would reduce general Treasury receipts and could increase pressure on other budgets or require spending offsets.
The deposit authority is temporary (expires Sept. 30, 2030), creating uncertainty for long-term planning and budgeting of victim-service programs and the nonprofits and state agencies that administer them.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Allows certain declination proceeds and, through Sept 30, 2030, most False Claims Act recoveries (excluding qui tam payments and government reimbursements) to be deposited into the Crime Victims Fund.
Official title: Clarify that amounts from declinations should be deposited in the Crime Victims Fund and to temporarily provide additional deposits into the Crime Victims Fund.
Introduced May 22, 2025 by Lisa Murkowski · Last progress May 22, 2025
Amends the Victims of Crime Act to let additional categories of federal recoveries be deposited into the Crime Victims Fund. It permits monies from certain declinations or similar final dispositions and, temporarily through September 30, 2030, allows most portions of False Claims Act settlements and recoveries (excluding amounts owed to qui tam relators and amounts reimbursing the United States for damages) to be deposited into the Fund.