4. Dividing What's Left: OVC, Compensation and Assistance. Once the above three items have taken their portion of the total amount available under the cap, the remainder is divided in a simple percentage formula. First, OVC gets 3%. OVC can use this 3% for two functions: at least half of the 3% must be used for services to victims of federal crimes, and the rest can be used for training and technical assistance (the OVC grants that have supported Association conferences in recent years have come from this source). OVC's 3% portion in the last two years has been approximately $14 million (in the chart on the preceding page, the $17.8 million shown for OVC in FY 2001 includes $3.8 million that was not obligated in the prior fiscal year and that must be added to this year's total).

The remaining 97% is first split in half, with one portion set aside for state compensation programs, and the other for state assistance grants. Of the half set aside for compensation, however, the states can get only an amount equal to 40% of what the states pay in benefits to victims out of their own state money. In other words, if the states as a whole pay $200 million in state dollars to compensate victims, the Crime Victims Fund will provide $80 million in grants to supplement that state money. Once each state gets a grant of 40% of its state payout, any leftover amount from the original portion set aside for compensation is added to the sum available for state assistance grants. While an increase in compensation grants directly reduces the amount available for assistance grants, since they are partaking of the same pot of money, it is all the prior reductions in the Fund—CJA, DOJ staff positions, and the Reserve projection—that determine the size of the pot that will be split.

In the past two years, assistance grants have totaled four times as much as compensation grants.

Show Me the Money: Deposits Above the Cap?
VOCA has always included language that creates a special account in the Treasury where all federal criminal fines are to be deposited, and presumably shall remain until obligated. At the request of the Association, last year Congress added language to clarify that "all sums deposited in the Fund in any fiscal year that are not made available for obligation by Congress in the subsequent fiscal year shall remain in the Fund for obligation in future fiscal years, without fiscal year limitation." Justice Department officials and Appropriations Committee staff also have provided assurances that deposits above the cap remain available for future expenditure.

This "reserve" of unobligated Crime Victims Fund collections has now reached $724 million, and it may be needed as early as this year if collections do not reach the spending limit set by Congress. According to the Department of Justice, approximately $200 million has been collected into the Crime Victims Fund in the first five months of the fiscal year, an annual pace of about $440 million. If this pace holds, and if Congress follows the President's lead and sets the cap at $575 million, the missing $135 million should be found in the "reserve" of unobligated money from the last two years.

What Happens Next
As the appropriations process now moves to the Congress, professionals and advocates in victim services will be watching developments closely. Only time will tell whether, and at what level, Congress places a cap on VOCA-or whether such caps prove to be beneficial or detrimental to efforts by states to provide as much help as possible to victims of crime. ln the meantime, the Association will try to keep its members fully informed of all developments.

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