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What Will It Take to Pass VAWA?

The Violence Against Women Act [VAWA] was originally passed in 1994 with strong bipartisan support. It was renewed in 2000 and 2005 also with bipartisan support. In those votes, legislators seemed to basically agree that violence against women was a bad thing and that all of us, including our federal government, had a role to play in addressing it.

The Violence Against Women Act [VAWA] was originally passed in 1994 with strong bipartisan support.  It was renewed in 2000 and 2005 also with bipartisan support.  In those votes, legislators seemed to basically agree that violence against women was a bad thing and that all of us, including our federal government, had a role to play in addressing it.  So money for services in local communities, prevention education, efforts to change laws, and needs of underserved communities has worked:  the rate of domestic violence has dropped 60% since 1994.  But still 3 women are murdered each day by an intimate partner, 20% of women in college experience sexual assault, 1 in 9 teenage girls will be forced to have sex.  This problem has not been solved; the work must continue, expand and be strengthened.  So it is time to again reauthorize and press ahead with this urgent agenda.  This year’s Reauthorization will provide for increasing resources for Native women, immigrant battered women, LGBT people, communities of color and campuses. (These are particularly underserved communities with startling statistics in sexual and domestic violence.)

Suddenly this year, the efforts to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act has provided fodder for partisan bickering in order to avoid actually doing something that needs doing. 

“With Congress just days away from its August break, House Republicans have to decide which is more important: protecting victims of domestic violence or advancing the harsh antigay and anti-immigrant sentiments of some on their party's far right. At the moment, harshness is winning.” (New York Times Editorial, July 24, 2012)

What is it going to take for Congress to release itself from the strangle hold of election year politics and get on with doing its job?  They have done nothing to move this bill forward for the past two months.  And now they are getting ready to go on vacation!

There is no vacation from sexual and domestic violence.  Tell your legislators from both parties that we can’t wait any longer. 

Let them hear what you have to say before they go on vacation!

Rev. Dr. Marie M. Fortune
FaithTrust Institute
www.faithtrustinstitute.org

Call your legislator, especially if you are in:

Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, or Wisconsin.

Click here for phone numbers for your legislators. For additional information and facts about VAWA click here.

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VAWA re-authorization

Posted by Lani Kallstrom at Oct 02, 2012 12:50 PM
And now Congress has adjourned and no re-authorization happened. What can we expect? What can we do?