Lawmakers Demand Passage of Child Victims Act

News 12 Hudson Valley
August 30, 2018

http://hudsonvalley.news12.com/story/38994978/lawmakers-demand-passage-of-child-victims-act

Local lawmakers from both sides of the aisle rallied in Cornwall-on-Hudson Thursday to urge the state Senate to pass the Child Victims Act.

Both Democrats and Republicans came together to call on the state Senate to pass the act they say is critical to bringing justice to sexual abuse survivors.

Assemblyman James Skoufis (D) joined Orange County Legislator Mike Anagnostakis (R) and children protection advocates to demand that the state Senate pass this act. If signed into law, they say it would allow prosecutors to bring up criminal cases against predators up to a victim’s 23rd birthday and civil cases up until a victim’s 50th birthday.

Victims at the rally say the act is needed, especially after the horrific reports of child sex abuse released recently by the attorney general of Pennsylvania.

“Survivors have suffered for long enough. New York is currently the worst state for protecting child victims of sexual abuse and survivors of sexual abuse. And as you've seen by the report from the Pennsylvania attorney general, we're in an epidemic,” says Gary Greenberg, of Fighting for Children PAC.

The state Assembly has already passed the act, but the bill has been stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate.