Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal, Assembly Sponsor of the Child Victims Act (CVA), Statement on the Governor’s Inclusion of CVA in the 2019-20 Executive Budget Proposal

New York, NY – “For 13 long years, survivors of childhood sexual assault and advocates have traveled to Albany to demand passage of the Child Victims Act (CVA). For many, the long road spent fighting to pass the CVA is dwarfed only by the years they have spent suffering in silence. In 2019 we will finally help ease some of their suffering by providing a pathway to justice by passing the Child Victims Act into law.

For years, New York, controlled by powerful interests that have much to hide, has been unable to create a pathway to justice for the survivors of childhood sexual assault. Despite the New York State Assembly passage of the CVA five times since 2006, the bill was never allowed to come to the floor of the State Senate for a vote.

Now with a changed landscape in Albany and across the country, our notions of what is possible must be defined not by what is politic, but by our consciences. I look forward to working with my colleagues in both houses of the Legislature to send the strongest version of the Child Victims Act that we can to the Governor’s desk."