December 28, 2016
Dear Rep. Donald Beyer, Senators Timothy Kaine and Mark Warner:
As Congress considers the Fiscal Year 2017 federal budget, I ask you to support funding for programs that support survivors of sexual violence and hold perpetrators accountable for these crimes. Specifically, I am asking Congress to:
- Release adequate funding from the Crime Victims Fund to guarantee states’ VOCA state assistance grants meet their needs.
- Include at least $35 million for the Sexual Assault Services Program (SASP), which provides critical funding to local programs for victims of sexual violence.
- Support the Justice Department’s Vision 21 program, which encourages the use of research, evaluation and technology to more efficiently serve victims of crime
- Include at least $125 million for DNA programs that support work to prevent and respond to backlogged, untested DNA evidence from unsolved sex crimes.
As your constituent, a survivor of sexual assault in the Marine Corps and a public speaker on sexual violence, this is important to me, and I will look for your support.
Sincerely,
James Landrith
https://jameslandrith.com