BILL NUMBER: S4584A
SPONSOR: SALAZAR
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the executive law, in relation to reports and awards by
the office of victim services
 
PURPOSE:
To expand access to and facilitate equitable administration of New York
victim compensation funds by requiring public reporting on program
performance; Increasing program outreach; adjusting compensation payor-
of-last resort obligations; and eliminating contributory conduct assess-
ments from claim decisions.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 establishes the short title as the "survivors first act".
Section 2 creates a new subdivision 18-a of section 623 of the executive
law by clarifying the Office of Victim Services' statutory obligation to
distribute information to criminal justice agencies, hospitals and other
appropriate locations concerning the existence of state compensation
benefits.
Section 3 amends subdivision 20 of section 623 of the Executive Law to
require the Office of Victim Services to disclose specific content and
data regarding the funding of crime victim service programs, victim
compensation, performance measures, victimization reporting, and publi-
cization of victim compensation benefits.
Section 4 amends subdivision 1 and 1-a of section 625-a of the Executive
Law to establish an outreach plan by the Office of Victim services to
every support or reporting agency for survivors of crime.
Section 5 amends subdivision 4 of section 631 of the Executive Law by
providing the Office of Victim Services the discretion to disregard
certain collateral sources, such as private insurance, that are not
federal or federally financed state and local programs. Additionally,
Section 2 eliminates private donations as a collateral source that the
Office of Victim Services may consider when determining the amount of a
victim compensation award. This section also amends subdivision 5 to
eliminate the requirement that the Office of Victim Services determine
whether a victim of crime contributed to the infliction of their own
injury.
Section 6 establishes the effective date
 
JUSTIFICATION:
In 1984, Congress established the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) to provide
federal oversight and support to state-administered victim compensation
programs. Under VOCA, the Department of Justice's Office for Victims of
Crime (DOJ OVC) was created to administer the Crime Victims Fund, which
consists of dollars collected via fines, fees, and settlement agreements
associated with federal crimes. A significant percentage of these funds
directly compensates crime victims for their financial losses resulting
from victimization, such as medical and counseling expenses, lost wages,
and temporary housing. Victims and survivors of crime must satisfy
eligibility criteria that vary across the states, but generally there
are a few core requirements: (1) physical injury; (2) reporting of the
crime; (3) a lack of direct or contributory involvement in the subject
crime; and (4) the absence of collateral sources that might otherwise
compensate for victim and survivor expenses.
Though victim compensation programs are intended, to assist in the prac-
tical consequences of victimization, current statutory and regulatory
regimes do not adequately meet the needs of victims. For example, only
one in five crime survivors is aware that post-victimization funds
exist, according to the National Alliance of Trauma Recovery Centers.
Further, only one in twelve crime survivors actually receive compen-
sation to recover from their victimization, according to the Alliance or
Safety and Justice. This overwhelming lack of awareness and access to
victim compensation strongly indicates that program promotion has not
been prioritized.
These statutory and regulatory inadequacies are worsened by substantive
contributory conduct provisions that force programs to assess a victim's
behavior before and during their victimization. Contributory conduct
assessments follow an opaque process and are often subjective in nature,
informed by the biases of different actors throughout the criminal
justice system. According to the Associated Press, for instance, Black
applicants in the State of New York are more likely to be denied under
the logic that their own behavior provoked victimization. Indeed, when a
crime survivor is denied pursuant to contributory conduct in New York,
the victim is told that they are not an "innocent victim of crime" and
therefore cannot be eligible for compensation. Conspicuously, there is
no federal victim compensation provision that mandate such contributory
conduct assessments. The Governor and legislature recognized this issue
in the 2024-2025 enacted budget, when they removed the contributory
conduct provision from the law for victims of homicide. This bill goes
further and eliminates the provision for all crime victims.
Federal law, however, does require state victim compensation programs to
be the "payor-of-last resort," meaning federal and federally financed
state programs must be considered collateral sources where they would
otherwise cover expenses eligible for state compensation. Despite
VOCA's specific prescription on collateral sources, some compensation
programs take an expansive view of the payor-of-last resort obligation,
extending their consideration of collateral sources to include private
donations and crowdfunding. DOJ OVC in particular has issued clarifying
guidance that discusses the unfairness of using crowdfunding for collat-
eral source assessments, noting that consideration of such private
donations is functionally similar to means testing, which VOCA does not
require. DO OVC further added that crowdfunding campaigns are frequent-
ly not controlled by the benefitting victims and survivors, nor are they
always organized to pay for expenses that victim compensation would
cover. Federal law is therefore more permissive on the payor-of-last
resort obligations that it imposes as a condition of receiving compen-
sation funding from DOJ OVC. Accordingly, this bill would reconcile New
York's compensation statute with the more limited requirements of feder-
al law and eliminate consideration of private donations as a collateral
source.
 
AMENDED VERSION:
The amended version of this bill establishes the short-title, removes
the provision that increases the burial cap because of the changes in
the 2024-2025 enacted budget that achieved this goal, expands on report-
ing requirements, establishes an outreach plan for OVS, and clarifies
the provision that eliminates contributory conduct as a mechanism to
reduce victim compensation.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
Senate
2025: S4584 (Salazar)- Referred to Crime Victims, Crime and Correction,
Reported to Rules
Assembly
2025: A5443A (Chandler-Waterman)- Referred to Government Operations,
Reported to Rules
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
TBD
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
120 days after becoming law

Statutes affected:
S4584: 623 executive law, 623(20) executive law, 631 executive law, 631(2) executive law
S4584A: 623 executive law, 623(20) executive law