The Alliance was proud to join our friends at Safe Horizon in Albany on Tuesday, April 26^th to rally in support of the Adult Survivors Act (ASA), a critical piece of legislation that would create a one year look back window to allow individuals who were 18 or older when they were sexually assaulted to file a civil lawsuit against the person who harmed them and/or the negligent institution.

The ASA unanimously passed the State Senate on Tuesday afternoon. The bill must now pass the Assembly before it can be sent to Governor Hochul for signature. As a reminder, the ASA never came to a vote in the Assembly last year, something we must change this legislative session! We strongly encourage everyone to reach out to Assembly Speaker Heastie to express your support for this bill and call for his support in its passage.

We praise bill sponsors Senator Hoylman and Assemblymember Rosenthal for their unwavering support for adult survivors and send our deepest thanks to Safe Horizon and the many advocates and survivors who have done the work to get this bill where it is today.

FY 23 State Budget

On Thursday, April 7^th, an agreement was reached on a $220 billion state budget. Of note for rape crisis programs…

• A one-year investment of $14.4 million to address the gaps in federal VOCA funding. Many thanks to NSCADV and NYSCASA for their leadership on this issue.
• $6.341 million in funding to rape crisis programs. This funding is down from last year’s allocation of $6.488 million due to the inability of the legislature to restore $147,000 in funding cuts.
• $4.5 million to support Enough is Enough (EiE) programming. EiE funding has remained at this level since its passage in 2015. Though we are thankful for the continued investment in EiE programming, the time has come for the state to further invest in this critical work. The Alliance and our partners will be prioritizing an enhanced EiE budget ask for next year’s budget session. More information to come on advocacy opportunities.