II

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 841

To increase the special assessment for felonies and improve the enforcement

of sentences imposing criminal fines, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 23 (legislative day, MAY 15), 1995

Mr. MCCAIN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To increase the special assessment for felonies and improve

the enforcement of sentences imposing criminal fines,

and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Crime Victim Assist5 ance Improvement Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS ON CONVICTED PERSONS.

7 (a) INCREASE.—Section 3013(a)(2) of title 18,

8 United States Code, is amended—

9 (1) in subparagraph (A) by striking ‘‘$50’’ and

10 inserting ‘‘not less than $100’’; and
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1 (2) in subparagraph (B) by striking ‘‘$200’’

2 and inserting ‘‘not less than $400’’.

3 (b) EXTENSION OF PERIOD OF OBLIGATION.—Sec4 tion 3013(c) of title 18, United States Code, is amended

5 by striking ‘‘five’’ and inserting ‘‘20’’.

6 SEC. 3. TIMING OF PAYMENT OF FINES AND RESTITUTION.

7 (a) CLARIFICATION OF PROVISION CONCERNING

8 WHEN A FINE MUST BE PAID.—Section 3572(d) of title

9 18, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:

10 ‘‘(d) TIME, METHOD OF PAYMENT, AND RELATED

11 ITEMS.—

12 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as otherwise or13 dered under paragraph (2), a person sentenced to

14 pay a fine or other monetary penalty shall not be re15 leased from custody following sentencing until the

16 person has paid the fine or penalty in full.

17 ‘‘(2) DELAYED PAYMENT.—(A) At sentencing,

18 the court may, if the interest of justice requires, per19 mit the defendant to delay payment of a fine or

20 other penalty.

21 ‘‘(B) If the court permits the defendant to

22 delay payment of a fine or penalty, the court shall

23 require that—

24 ‘‘(i) an installment on the criminal debt be

25 paid immediately or as soon as the court deter-
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1 mines that it would be possible for the defend2 ant to pay an installment; and

3 ‘‘(ii) the defendant make payment in equal

4 monthly installments or on such other schedule

5 as the court may specify.’’.

6 (b) AMENDMENT OF PROVISION CONCERNING WHEN

7 RESTITUTION MUST BE PAID.—Section 3663 of title 18,

8 United States Code, is amended—

9 (1) in subsection (b)—

10 (A) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘and’’ at

11 the end;

12 (B) in paragraph (5), by striking the pe13 riod and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and

14 (C) by adding at the end the following new

15 paragraph:

16 ‘‘(6) make payments to the court or an agent

17 of the court, to be disbursed to the victim, in any

18 case in which the court finds such action is nec19 essary to protect the privacy and safety of the vic20 tim.’’; and

21 (2) in subsection (f), by striking ‘‘(f)(1) The

22 court may require’’ and all that follows through ‘‘(4)

23 The order of restitution’’ and inserting the following:

24 ‘‘(f)(1) Except as otherwise ordered under paragraph

25 (2), a person required to pay restitution shall not be re-
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1 leased from custody following sentencing until the person

2 has paid the restitution in full.

3 ‘‘(2)(A) At sentencing, the court may permit the de4 fendant to delay payment of restitution if the court finds

5 that the defendant is unable to pay.

6 ‘‘(B) If the court permits the defendant to delay pay7 ment of restitution, the court shall require that—

8 ‘‘(i) an installment on the debt of restitution be

9 paid immediately or as soon as the court determines

10 that it would be possible for the defendant to pay an

11 installment; and

12 ‘‘(ii) the person make payment in equal month13 ly installments or on such other schedule as the

14 court may specify.

15 ‘‘(C) This paragraph shall not be construed to limit

16 any right that a victim may have to obtain and enforce

17 a civil judgment against the defendant or seek any other

18 legal remedy available to the victim to redress any injury

19 caused by the defendant.

20 ‘‘(3) The order of restitution’’.

21 SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT OF SENTENCE OF A FINE THROUGH

22 ORDER SUSPENDING FEDERAL BENEFITS.

23 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 3572 of title 18, United

24 States Code, is amended by adding at the end the follow25 ing new subsection:
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1 ‘‘(j) SUSPENSION OF FEDERAL BENEFITS.—

2 ‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection—

3 ‘‘(A) the term ‘Federal benefit’ means a

4 grant, contract, loan, professional license, or

5 commercial license provided by an agency of the

6 United States or by any entity using appro7 priated funds of the United States (including a

8 retirement, welfare, Social Security, health, dis9 ability, or veterans’ benefit, public housing, or

10 any similar benefit, or any other benefit for

11 which payments or services are required for eli12 gibility); and

13 ‘‘(B) the term ‘veterans’ benefit’ means a

14 benefit provided to veterans, their families, or

15 survivors under laws administered by the Sec16 retary of Veterans Affairs.

17 ‘‘(2) ORDER.—If a defendant is delinquent in

18 paying a fine or other monetary penalty imposed

19 under this section, the court may, after a hearing,

20 issue an order that—

21 ‘‘(A) suspends the provision of Federal

22 benefits to the defendant for the time period in

23 which the defendant is delinquent, until such

24 time as—

25 ‘‘(i) the delinquency is cured; or
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1 ‘‘(ii) if the court so orders, the de2 fendant demonstrates a good-faith effort to

3 cure the delinquency; or

4 ‘‘(B) if the defendant demonstrates that

5 the defendant is unable to make payments as

6 required, sets a payment schedule that will re7 quire the defendant to pay the maximum

8 amounts that the defendant can reasonably be

9 expected to pay under the circumstances.

10 ‘‘(3) REINSTATEMENT OF BENEFITS.—An

11 order under paragraph (2) may provide that if the

12 defendant cures a delinquency for any time period,

13 a Federal benefit that is in the form of a payment

14 of money or other instrument of value to which the

15 defendant would have been entitled with respect to

16 that time period shall be provided to the defendant

17 (without addition of interest for the delay in pay18 ment).’’.

19 (b) APPLICATION OF AMENDMENT.—The amendment

20 made by subsection (a) shall not be applied to deny a Fed21 eral benefit to any person until the date on which the At22 torney General, in consultation with the Director of the

23 Administrative Office of the United States Courts, issues

24 a written determination that a cost-effective, readily avail25 able criminal debt payment tracking system operated by
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1 the agency responsible for the collection of criminal debt

2 has established communications links with entities that

3 administer Federal benefit programs that are sufficient to

4 ensure that Federal benefits are not denied to any person

5 except as authorized by law.

6 SEC. 5. CRIME VICTIMS FUND.

7 (a) PROHIBITION OF PAYMENTS TO DELINQUENT

8 CRIMINAL DEBTORS BY STATE CRIME VICTIM COM9 PENSATION PROGRAMS.—

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 1403(b) of the Vic11 tims of Crime Act of 1984 (42 U.S.C. 10602(b)) is

12 amended—

13 (A) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of para14 graph (7);

15 (B) by redesignating paragraph (8) as

16 paragraph (9); and

17 (C) by inserting after paragraph (7) the

18 following new paragraph:

19 ‘‘(8) such program does not provide compensa20 tion to any person who has been convicted of an of21 fense under Federal law with respect to any time pe22 riod during which the person is delinquent in paying

23 a fine or other monetary penalty imposed for the of24 fense; and’’.
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1 (2) APPLICATION OF AMENDMENT.—The

2 amendment made by paragraph (1) shall not be ap3 plied to deny victims compensation to any person

4 until the date on which the Attorney General, in

5 consultation with the Director of the Administrative

6 Office of the United States Courts, issues a written

7 determination that a cost-effective, readily available

8 criminal debt payment tracking system operated by

9 the agency responsible for the collection of criminal

10 debt has established cost-effective, readily available

11 communications links with entities that administer

12 Federal victims compensation programs that are suf13 ficient to ensure that victims compensation is not

14 denied to any person except as authorized by law.

15 (b) EXCLUSION FROM INCOME FOR PURPOSES OF

16 MEANS TESTS.—Section 1403 of the Victims of Crime

17 Act of 1984 (42 U.S.C. 10602) is amended by inserting

18 after subsection (b) the following new subsection:

19 ‘‘(c) EXCLUSION FROM INCOME FOR PURPOSES OF

20 MEANS TESTS.—Notwithstanding any other law, for the

21 purpose of any maximum allowed income eligibility re22 quirement in any Federal, State, or local government pro23 gram using Federal funds that provides medical or other

24 assistance (or payment or reimbursement of the cost of

25 such assistance) that becomes necessary to an applicant
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1 for such assistance in full or in part because of the com2 mission of a crime against the applicant, as determined

3 by the Director, any amount of crime victim compensation

4 that the applicant receives through a crime victim com5 pensation program under this section shall not be included

6 in the income of the applicant until the total amount of

7 assistance that the applicant receives from all such pro8 grams is sufficient to fully compensate the applicant for

9 losses suffered as a result of the crime.’’.

Æ