Here's how VOCA directs that the Crime Victims Fund be distributed, in the order in which various purposes must be satisfied:

1. The First Taker: Children 's Justice Act. The first $20 million in the VOCA Crime Victims Fund must go to support work under the Children's Justice Act (CJA). (Actually, CJA gets $20 million only when deposits into the Fund in the preceding year are greater than the $324 million total reached in FY 1998; otherwise, if deposits drop below $324 million, CJA gets $10 million.) The CJA slice of the Fund is divided between the Health and Human Services Department (HHS), which gets 85%, and OVC, which gets 15%. OVC has used its portion to improve investigation and prosecution of child sexual abuse in Indian country.

2. Such Sums As Necessary: U.S. Attorneys & FBI. Because of an amendment two years ago, and another similar one last year, the Crime Victims Fund now has to provide "such sums as are necessary" to support victim-witness staff in U.S. Attorneys' Offices and FBI field offices. The amounts that are "necessary" are theoretically unlimited, which is cause for considerable concern to some advocates. This year, the U.S. Attorneys' Offices took somewhat over $14 million from the Fund, and the FBI came in for a $7.4 million take, It simply is not known whether these amounts will increase in future years—or whether other federal agencies, like the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the State Department, or the Treasury Department, will seek their own funding from VOCA as well, now that this precedent has been set.

3. New Discretionary Amount: International Compensation and Emergency Reserve. Last year Congress created a new international terrorism-victim compensation program to be operated by OVC, with funding to come from an expansion of Vocal's already existing Reserve Fund. By law, eligibility for such compensation can extend back to all terrorism victims since 1989, including families of Pan Am 103 victims, African Embassy bombing victims, and service Members and their families injured or killed in the U.S.S. Cole attack.

The Reserve had been created several years earlier with two legislative purposes: first, to provide supplemental grants to states to help them meet victims' needs in incidents of mass violence and terrorism, both domestic and international, such as the Oklahoma City bombing and the Columbine school shooting; and second, to serve as a "rainy day fund" when a drop in Crime Victims Fund collections otherwise would decrease overall amounts available for spending. The international compensation amendment last year doubled the allowable amount to be kept in the Reserve Fund to $100 million; however, money can be added to the Reserve only in years that Fund deposits rise from the previous year—which didn't happen last year—so the amount in the Reserve Fund stood at $46 million entering this fiscal year.

Under new budgetary rules imposed this year, OVC now must declare the amount it wants available to spend from the Reserve in the coming fiscal year for the new international compensation program as well as for grants to states to assist in incidents of domestic mass violence and international terrorism. This amount is set in OVC's discretion, taking into account any projections of current need as well as any potential for new incidents. Obviously, this is a difficult proposition: there is no way to know what disasters may await, or to know in advance what they will cost. Nevertheless, OVC can only use funds it declares in advance as the amount it wants available for whatever may occur.

The amount that OVC chooses to declare for potential expenditure comes out of whatever cap is set by Congress; the more OVC chooses to put into the annual budget for international and domestic terrorism and mass violence, the less is available for state VOCA assistance grants.