Due to the joint budget agreement to exclude funding for compensation for victims of the state’s former Eugenics Board program, as well as continuation funding for operation of the N.C. Justice for Sterilization Victims Foundation, the Foundation has suspended intake of new victim verification requests. The House approved legislation earlier this month that reflected Gov. Bev Perdue’s call to pay $50,000 lump sum compensation to living victims, as well as funding for the Foundation’s continued operation. House Speaker Thom Tillis last week restated his personal support for House Bill 947, but added: “There is a very strong message from the Senate that they are not prepared to take it up this year.”  The Foundation must curtail intake requests because its current operational funding is scheduled to expire on June 30, the end of the fiscal year.  As of today, Lenoir County, where the Caswell Center is located, continues to have the highest number of verifications with 24 matches to N.C. Eugenics Board records. Mecklenburg, which had the highest number of procedures of any North Carolina county, follows with 13 verifications.  Wilkes County is ranked 12 in the state with 100 sterilizations but only 3 verifications to date.  The N.C. Eugenics Board implemented a program of involuntary sterilization that took place in all 100 counties between 1929 and 1974. By the end of the program, nearly 7,600 documented people were sterilized.