HOYLMAN BLASTS “COWARDLY” REPUBLICAN MANEUVER TO AVOID VOTE ON THE CHILD VICTIMS ACT

ALBANY – State Senator Brad Hoylman (D, WF-Manhattan), Ranking Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the following statement today condemning Republicans’ effort to circumvent Senate rules that would have compelled a vote on the Senator’s Child Victims Act.

“The Senate is desperate to avoid being forced to go on the record with whom they stand: survivors or abusers. By cowardly sending my legislation, the Child Victims Act, to yet another committee, the State Senate is worming its way out of having to take an up-or-down vote on the bill. It’s a gutless move on the part of the Senate leadership. All survivors have asked for is the chance to look their senators in the eye and learn where they stand on lifting the statutes of limitations for crimes of child sex abuse. The Senate and its fake majority should hang their heads in shame today.” 

Hoylman’s Child Victims Act would lift New York’s civil and criminal statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse crimes and create a one-year look-back period to allow survivors the opportunity to file claims against abusers who remain at-large. Currently, New York’s statutes of limitations, the most restrictive in the nation, only give survivors until the age of 23 to file criminal charges or initiate a civil lawsuit. For most, this is an insufficient amount of time to come to terms with their trauma. As a result, by the time many of these survivors come forward as adults to report the crimes, it’s too late to take action.