II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 285
To curtail the use of changes in mandatory programs affecting the Crime
Victims Fund to inflate spending.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY28, 2025
Mr. L
ANKFORD(for himself, Mr. CRAPO, and Mr. RISCH) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the
Budget
A BILL
To curtail the use of changes in mandatory programs
affecting the Crime Victims Fund to inflate spending.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fairness for Crime 4
Victims Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. POINT OF ORDER AGAINST CERTAIN CHANGES IN 6
MANDATORY PROGRAMS AFFECTING THE 7
CRIME VICTIMS FUND. 8
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds that— 9
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(1) the Crime Victims Fund was created in 1
1984, with the support of overwhelming bipartisan 2
majorities in the House of Representatives and the 3
Senate and the support of President Ronald Reagan, 4
who signed the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (Pub-5
lic Law 98–473) into law; 6
(2) the Crime Victims Fund was created based 7
on the principle that funds the Federal Government 8
collects from those convicted of crime should be used 9
to aid those who have been victimized by crime; 10
(3) the Crime Victims Fund is funded from 11
fines, penalties, and forfeited bonds in Federal court 12
and private donations; 13
(4) the Crime Victims Fund receives no tax-14
payer dollars; 15
(5) Federal law provides that funds deposited 16
into the Crime Victims Fund shall be used to pro-17
vide services to victims of crime in accordance with 18
the Victims of Crime Act of 1984; 19
(6) the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 gives pri-20
ority to victims of child abuse, sexual assault, and 21
domestic violence; 22
(7) since fiscal year 2000, Congress has been 23
accounting for funds collected by the Crime Victims 24
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Fund, but not disbursing the full amount provided 1
for under the Victims of Crime Act of 1984; 2
(8) over $10,000,000,000 has been withheld 3
from victims of child abuse, sexual assault, domestic 4
violence, and other crimes; 5
(9) from fiscal year 2010 through fiscal year 6
2014, the Crime Victims Fund collected 7
$12,000,000,000, but Congress disbursed only 8
$3,600,000,000 (or 30 percent) to victims of crime; 9
(10) since fiscal year 2015, Congress has in-10
creased disbursals from the Crime Victims Fund to 11
victims of crime, but a permanent solution is nec-12
essary to ensure consistent disbursals to victims of 13
crime who rely on these funds every year; 14
(11) under budget rules, Congress represents 15
that the money it has already spent in prior years 16
is still in the Crime Victims Fund and available for 17
victims of crime; 18
(12) it is time to restore fairness to crime vic-19
tims; and 20
(13) funds collected by the Crime Victims Fund 21
should be used for services to and compensation of 22
crime victims in accordance with the Victims of 23
Crime Act of 1984. 24
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(b) AMENDMENT.—Title IV of the Congressional 1
Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 651 et seq.) is amended 2
by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘PART C—ADDITIONAL LIMITATIONS ON BUDG-4
ETARY AND APPROPRIATIONS LEGISLATION 5
‘‘SEC. 441. POINT OF ORDER AGAINST CHANGES IN MANDA-6
TORY PROGRAMS AFFECTING THE CRIME 7
VICTIMS FUND. 8
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 9
‘‘(1) the term ‘CHIMP’ means a provision 10
that— 11
‘‘(A) would have been estimated as affect-12
ing direct spending or receipts under section 13
252 of the Balanced Budget and Emergency 14
Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 902) (as 15
in effect prior to September 30, 2002) if the 16
provision was included in legislation other than 17
an appropriation Act; and 18
‘‘(B) results in a net decrease in budget 19
authority in the current year or the budget 20
year, but does not result in a net decrease in 21
outlays over the period of the total of the cur-22
rent year, the budget year, and all fiscal years 23
covered under the most recently adopted con-24
current resolution on the budget; 25
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‘‘(2) the term ‘Crime Victims Fund’ means the 1
Crime Victims Fund established under section 1402 2
of the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (34 U.S.C. 3
20101); and 4
‘‘(3) the term ‘3-year average amount’ means 5
the annual average amount that was deposited into 6
the Crime Victims Fund during the 3-fiscal-year pe-7
riod beginning on October 1 of the fourth fiscal year 8
before the fiscal year to which a CHIMP affecting 9
the Crime Victims Fund applies. 10
‘‘(b) P
OINT OFORDER IN THESENATE.— 11
‘‘(1) P
OINT OF ORDER.— 12
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 13
subparagraph (C), in the Senate, it shall not be 14
in order to consider a provision in a bill or joint 15
resolution making appropriations for all or a 16
portion of a fiscal year, or an amendment there-17
to, amendment between the Houses in relation 18
thereto, conference report thereon, or motion 19
thereon, that contains a CHIMP that, if en-20
acted, would cause the amount available for ob-21
ligation during the fiscal year from the Crime 22
Victims Fund to be less than the 3-year average 23
amount. 24
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‘‘(B) POINT OF ORDER SUSTAINED .—If a 1
point of order is made by a Senator against a 2
provision described in subparagraph (A), and 3
the point of order is sustained by the Chair, 4
that provision shall be stricken from the meas-5
ure and may not be offered as an amendment 6
from the floor. 7
‘‘(C) L
IMITATION.—A point of order shall 8
not lie in the Senate under this paragraph if 9
the difference between the amount in the Crime 10
Victims Fund as of September 30 of the fiscal 11
year immediately preceding the fiscal year to 12
which the CHIMP described in subparagraph 13
(A) relates and the amount available for obliga-14
tion under the CHIMP described in subpara-15
graph (A) is not more than $2,000,000,000. 16
‘‘(2) F
ORM OF THE POINT OF ORDER .—A point 17
of order under paragraph (1) may be raised by a 18
Senator as provided in section 313(e). 19
‘‘(3) C
ONFERENCE REPORTS .—When the Sen-20
ate is considering a conference report on, or an 21
amendment between the Houses in relation to, a bill 22
or joint resolution, upon a point of order being made 23
by any Senator pursuant to paragraph (1), and such 24
point of order being sustained, such material con-25
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tained in such conference report or House amend-1
ment shall be stricken, and the Senate shall proceed 2
to consider the question of whether the Senate shall 3
recede from its amendment and concur with a fur-4
ther amendment, or concur in the House amendment 5
with a further amendment, as the case may be, 6
which further amendment shall consist of only that 7
portion of the conference report or House amend-8
ment, as the case may be, not so stricken. Any such 9
motion in the Senate shall be debatable to the same 10
extent as the conference report or House amend-11
ment, as the case may be. In any case in which such 12
point of order is sustained against a conference re-13
port (or Senate amendment derived from such con-14
ference report by operation of this subsection), no 15
further amendment shall be in order. 16
‘‘(4) S
UPERMAJORITY WAIVER AND APPEAL .— 17
In the Senate, this subsection may be waived or sus-18
pended only by an affirmative vote of three-fifths of 19
the Members, duly chose and sworn. An affirmative 20
vote of three-fifths of Members of the Senate, duly 21
chosen and sworn shall be required to sustain an ap-22
peal of the ruling of the Chair on a point of order 23
raised under this subsection. 24
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‘‘(5) DETERMINATION.—For purposes of this 1
subsection, budgetary levels shall be determined on 2
the basis of estimates provided by the Chairman of 3
the Committee on the Budget of the Senate. 4
‘‘(c) P
OINT OFORDER IN THE HOUSE OFREP-5
RESENTATIVES.— 6
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.— 7
‘‘(A) P
OINT OF ORDER.—Except as pro-8
vided in subparagraph (B), a provision in a bill 9
or joint resolution making appropriations for a 10
fiscal year that proposes a CHIMP that, if en-11
acted, would cause the amount available for ob-12
ligation during the fiscal year from the Crime 13
Victims Fund to be less than the 3-year average 14
amount shall not be in order in the House of 15
Representatives. 16
‘‘(B) L
IMITATION.—Subparagraph (A) 17
shall not apply if the difference between the 18
amount in the Crime Victims Fund as of Sep-19
tember 30 of the fiscal year immediately pre-20
ceding the fiscal year to which the CHIMP de-21
scribed in subparagraph (A) relates and the 22
amount available for obligation under the 23
CHIMP described in subparagraph (A) is not 24
more than $2,000,000,000. 25
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‘‘(2) AMENDMENTS AND CONFERENCE RE -1
PORTS.—It shall not be in order in the House of 2
Representatives to consider an amendment to, or a 3
conference report on, a bill or joint resolution mak-4
ing appropriations for a fiscal year if such amend-5
ment thereto or conference report thereon proposes 6
a CHIMP that, if enacted, would cause the amount 7
available for obligation during the fiscal year from 8
the Crime Victims Fund to be less than the 3-year 9
average amount. 10
‘‘(3) D
ETERMINATION.—For purposes of this 11
subsection, budgetary levels shall be determined on 12
the basis of estimates provided by the Chairman of 13
the Committee on the Budget of the House of Rep-14
resentatives.’’. 15
(c) T
ECHNICAL AND CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.— 16
The table of contents in section 1(b) of the Congressional 17
Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 is amend-18
ed by inserting after the item relating to section 428 the 19
following: 20
‘‘PART C—ADDITIONALLIMITATIONS ONBUDGETARY AND APPROPRIATIONS
L
EGISLATION
‘‘Sec. 441. Point of order against changes in mandatory programs affecting the
Crime Victims Fund.’’.
Æ
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