NEW YORK
Syracuse.com
By Mark Weiner | mweiner@syracuse.com
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SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The New York Catholic Conference hired some of the state’s most influential lobbying firms to block a bill that would have made it easier for victims of child sex abuse to sue abusers decades later, according to a report by the New York Daily News.
The Catholic Conference headed by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, spent more than $2.1 million on lobbyists from 2007 through last year, the Daily News reported, citing state lobbying records.
The lobbyists disclosed one of their responsibilities was to work on issues regarding civil actions related to sex offenses.
The New York State Senate last week rejected an effort to force a vote on the Child Victims Act, which would have given people sexually abused as children a new one-year window to sue over incidents that occurred decades ago.
The Senate voted 30-29 to block Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, in his attempt to eliminate the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse. People who were sexually abused as children in New York must initiate criminal charges or a civil suit by the time they reach age 23.
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