This week, the United States House of Representatives Committee on Rules is scheduled to consider an amended version of S. 47, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA) of 2013. S. 47 originated in the Senate and passed overwhelmingly with bipartisan support (78-12) on February 12, 2013.
The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the AAUW are strongly opposed to the United States House of Representatives version of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 pending before the Rules Committee. “The House version of the bill rolls back current law and fails victims in a number of critical ways:
• Fails to include the protections for LGBT victims from the Senate bill;
• Provides non-tribal batterers with additional tools to manipulate the justice system, takes away existing protections for Native women by limiting existing tribal power to issue civil orders of protection against non-Native abusers, while weakening protections for Native women;
• Contains harsh administrative penalties and hurdles for small struggling domestic violence and sexual assault programs and an additional layer of bureaucracy through the office of the Attorney General;
• Drops the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SAVE) Act, which is included in the Senate bill, that improves the handling of sexual violence and intimate partner violence on college campuses;
• Drops important provisions in the Senate bill that work toward erasing the rape kit backlog;
• Weakens protections for victims in public housing; and
• Drops the inclusion of “stalking” among the list of crimes covered by the U visa (a critical law enforcement tool that encourages immigrant victims to assist with the investigation or prosecution of certain enumerated crimes)”
“The only VAWA bill that we can endorse is the original S.47, a bill that passed the Senate overwhelmingly with bipartisan support and aims to protect all victims as well as hold all perpetrators accountable– regardless of race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, immigrant status or sexual orientation.”
“NCADV stands in solidarity with more than 1,300 advocacy organizations, including the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, and urges the House to vote no on the VAWA measure pending before the Rules Committee.”
Act now and join advocacy organizations across the country in opposing the United States House of Representatives’ VAWA measure by contacting your House member. For additional information, see the NCADV website and the NTF Alert.
Sources: NCADV Action Alert. AAUW Action Alert
Photo Credit: Microsoft Clip Art
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