SECTION 1. Short Title.
This Act may be cited as the “Victims’ Voices Outside and Inside the Courtroom Effectiveness Act” or the “Victims’ VOICES Act”.
Victims’ Voices Outside and Inside the Courtroom Effectiveness Act
An Act
To amend section 3663A of title 18, United States Code, to clarify that restitution includes necessary and reasonable expenses incurred by a person who has assumed the victim’s rights.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SEC. 2. Restitution for Expenses of Persons Who Have Assumed the Victim’s Rights.
Section 3663A(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(4) Clarification.—In ordering restitution under this section, a court shall order the defendant to make restitution to a person who has assumed the victim’s rights under paragraph (2) to reimburse that person’s necessary and reasonable—
“(A) lost income, child care, transportation, and other expenses incurred during and directly related to participation in the investigation or prosecution of the offense or attendance at proceedings related to the offense;
“(B) lost income, transportation, and other expenses incurred that are directly related to transporting the victim for necessary medical and related professional services and devices relating to physical, psychiatric, and psychological care, including nonmedical care and treatment rendered in accordance with a method of healing recognized by the law of the place of treatment; and
“(C) lost income, transportation, and other expenses incurred that are directly related to transporting the victim to receive necessary physical and occupational therapy and rehabilitation.”