House approves changes to Crime Victims Reparations program, removes filing time limit

The Utah House on Feb. 18 passed First Substitute House Bill 331, amending the Crime Victims Reparations Act to broaden the board’s authority and eliminate a statutory time limit on filing claims.

Sponsor Representative Bradshaw told colleagues the bill would allow the Victims Reparations Board to allocate money to other victim services when actuarial updates show the fund can sustain such uses. It also removes the time limit for submitting a claim, a change the sponsor said the U.S. Department of Justice has recommended so programs do not exclude victims whose reports arrive after an arbitrary deadline. “The purpose of the Board is to cover as many victims of violent crime as possible, not to exclude them,” Bradshaw said.

The measure exempts the reparations program from the Administrative Procedures Act to preserve its non‑entitlement character, per the sponsor’s explanation, and updates fraudulent-claim penalties and restitution-recovery language so the state can recoup reparations from court-ordered restitution when appropriate.

Bradshaw said the changes would also allow district victims-rights committees and other victim services to apply for funding where actuarial reviews show sufficient reserves. He cited past denials of claims that may have been only days past the prior deadline as a reason to remove the statutory time limit.

The House recorded the final vote at 73‑0. The bill will be forwarded to the Senate for its consideration.