Addressing Cuts to Programs for Survivors and Victims: RM Raskin Opening Statement on Kayleigh's Law

Thank you Chairman Biggs. Welcome to all of our witnesses. Sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and other forms of sexual abuse happen in every community. They affect all people, regardless of gender or age. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, an average of 24 people per minute become victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner. That's more than 12 million women and men every year. Nationwide, more than one in five women have been raped or subjected to attempted rape, and 60% of rapes are committed by someone known to the victim, a number that increases to 93% for victims of minor age. The lives of victims are radically altered. Not only do they suffer immediate physical and emotional trauma, they also often experience a wide range of chronic physical and mental health problems as a result. They pay heavy price in financial terms, from related medical and therapeutic treatment, lost work, and legal expenses. The weight of these burdens is even greater for survivors with fewer resources and networks to draw upon. Every survivor deserves to be safe, protected, and supported. I'm heartened to see that in recent years, states have taken action to improve protections for survivors, often thanks to the advocacy of survivors themselves, people like Kaylee Kozak, who we get to hear from today. Because of Ms. Kozak's dogged advocacy, survivors of sex crimes and other violent crimes may now petition the court in her home state of Arizona for a permanent order of protection against their perpetrators that is separate and apart from any action connected to a criminal prosecution. Ms. Kozak's advocacy did not end in Arizona, and as a result, many other states have similar laws, including my own home state of Maryland, which offers similar protections for victims and survivors. These laws go a long way in helping victims and survivors feel safe and to move forward with their lives. There's a role for the federal government to play as well. Unfortunately, the federal government's responsibilities to help survivors have been deeply undercut by this administration. It has eliminated hundreds of programs created and funded to address the needs of victims and survivors. In April of last year, President Trump declared unending support to every victim of crime. But that same month, members of our committee will recall the Department of Justice, following the orders of Doge and Elon Musk, abruptly terminated 373 different grants to state and local programs, totaling around $500 million, including 59 of them specifically supporting survivors of sexual crimes. Take, for instance, the National Organization for Victim Advocacy, or NOVA, the oldest victim assistance organization in the country, which lost a grant originally valued at $870,000 for its Victim Advocacy Corps. NOVA started the Corps as a pilot in 2022 and helped train and accredit students to be victim advocates, providing a lifeline to victims of sexual assault, trafficking, domestic violence, and other crimes in communities often bypassed by traditional victim services. Out of the blue, with no justification offered, no hearings, the Trump administration simply canceled the entire grant. The fiscal year 2027 budget proposal seems to indicate that such cuts are going to continue. The President's budget proposes significant funding cuts for grant programs under the Office on Violence Against Women, slashing, for example, $14 million to transitional housing grants and $15 million to legal assistance grants. Both housing and legal assistance are crucial for survivors and their children, enabling them to escape the cycle of violence and to start the long process of actually rebuilding their lives. The administration has again proposed that the Office on Violence Against Women be consolidated with other offices within the DOJ, despite explicit statutory language requiring that the office exist as a standalone entity. Trump has also taken a wrecking ball to the federal government's capacity to investigate and prosecute criminals, including those who commit sex crimes. DOJ is hemorrhaging thousands of lawyers and having a hard time recruiting replacements. Data from ICE reveal that in 2025, an astounding 14,500 federal law enforcement officers were diverted from their regular roles in investigating and prosecuting crimes to assist simply in immigration enforcement. An investigation from the New York Times found that from February through April of last year, Homeland Security investigators worked 33% fewer hours on child exploitation cases than they had in prior years. The result of this overwhelming focus on immigration enforcement is the DOJ quietly closed a stunning 23,000 criminal investigations in the first six months of the administration alone. The Trump administration seems inclined to ignore victims of sex crimes, to leave them unprotected, or in some cases even re-traumatize them. The DOJ moved convicted trafficker and groomer Ghislaine Maxwell from a higher security prison to a minimum security camp in Texas, where she's enjoyed five-star treatment with catered meals, private gym time, and access to a therapy puppy. Then in a feeble attempt to comply with the law that we passed and President Trump signed into law to release all DOJ files on the Epstein conspiracy, the DOJ redacted the names of abusers, enablers, accomplices, and co-conspirators while shockingly failing in many cases to redact the names of the victims, many of whom had yet to identify themselves publicly. So we have a lot to talk about today. I want to welcome our witnesses, especially Ms. Kozak and my friend Lisa Jordan, the outstanding leader for the interests of victims of survivors of sexual assault and violence in the great state of Maryland, and it was a great honor for me to get to work with her for 10 years when I was a state senator in Annapolis. I hope we'll take today's testimony to heart, and I yield back to you, Mr. Chairman.