NNEDV Praises House Passage of VAWA, Looks Forward to President Obama Signing Bill into Law

FEBRUARY 28, 2013

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives took up the Senate-passed bill to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), and passed this vital legislation by a bipartisan vote of vote of 286-138, including 87 Republicans voting in favor.  NNEDV applauds the Members of Congress who led the fight and voted for VAWA’s passage.

“Victims of violence and their advocates are breathing a collective sigh of relief today, knowing that this critical bill is on its way to President Obama for signature. We commend those who stood in support of victims and put the needs of those suffering from abuse ahead of partisan politics,” said Kim Gandy, President and CEO of NNEDV. “These Representatives, and the Senators who voted in favor of the bipartisan VAWA, have renewed our nation’s commitment to protecting victims of domestic and sexual violence.”

The legislation that passed today is a strong reauthorization that includes landmark protections for women on Tribal lands, improves protections for immigrant victims, ensures services for LGBT survivors, and adds important housing protections for victims. The bill also preserves and maintains core funding for life-saving victim services.

NNEDV was founded to help pass the original Violence Against Women Act in 1994 and NNEDV is honored to have been part of this next step forward.

“Advocates and survivors have been working on this bill for years and will be elated to watch the President sign it into law,” concluded Gandy.

• Read President Obama’s statement on the House passage of VAWA
• Read Vice President Biden’s statement on the House passage of VAWA

SB 86 has passed the Rules Committee and is headed to the Georgia Senate for a full vote.  Please contact your Senators about this important bill TODAY.  Refer to SB 86 talking points for important information which can be used to guide your conversation.

To find your Senator, please follow the link http://gcadv.org/what-we-do/public-policy/find-your-state-legislators/.

Questions may be directed to Allison Smith at asmith@gcadv.org or Shenna Johnson at sjohnson@gcadv.org.

It’s unacceptable that VAWA resources have been jeopardized for almost 2 years!

The election is over and it’s time!

Congress has some unfinished business.

They MUST PASS the Violence Against Women Act NOW!

We must get Congress to finish the work of passing a VAWA that safely and effectively protects ALL victims.

National Day of Action:

Mark your calendars for a National Day of Action to pass VAWA – Wednesday, November 14.  Advocates and allies all across the nation will be contacting their elected officials to tell them “Pass VAWA now!”

Please take a few minutes on that day to call your Senators and Representatives.

• Use this number 888.269.5702 to connect to the Capitol switchboard.  Then ask to be connect to you U.S. Representative (www.house.gov) or Senator (www.senate.gov).
• Tell them:  “I am your constituent.  Now that the elections are over, I urge you to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)!  It has been 679 days since VAWA expired, 183 days since Congress’s last action on VAWA.  Please, show women and victims that you care – pass VAWA now!

Email: Don’t have time to call? You can also the short message above to your Members of Congress.

Twitter:  Do you tweet?  Here are a few sample tweets that you can use!

@[INSERT YOUR REP’S TWITTER HANDLE] #PassVAWA2012 because victims need safe and affordable housing #dv #VAWA

@[INSERT YOUR REP’S TWITTER HANDLE] #PassVAWA2012 because victims are still being killed by their partners. #dv #VAWA

@[INSERT YOUR REP’S TWITTER HANDLE] #PassVAWA2012 because our shelter serves victims in your community who depend on it!

@[INSERT YOUR REP’S TWITTER HANDLE]  #PassVAWA2012 because 6 out of 10 Native American women will be physically assaulted in their lifetime.

Social Media

Be a part of a ground-breaking campaign to leverage the full power of social media in fighting for the Reauthorization of VAWA! Join the #PassVAWA2012 Facebook Photo Campaign to tell Congress that it’s time to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act!  It’s easy – just snap photos of you, your friends, and your colleagues – holding up signs saying why we need to Pass VAWA NOW!  Submit your photos via email to advocacy@nnedv.org and lccref@gmail.com or tweetpic to #PassVAWA2012.

The Background

You have worked so hard over the past two years to urge Congress to reauthorize VAWA.  Election cycle politics derailed VAWA’s passage and now we have a final opportunity to get this done!  Congress needs to hear from you that this is still a priority and that they need to act in “lame duck” session.  With the combination of additional pressure from you throughout November and the work of NNEDV and others at the national level, we believe that it is very likely that Congress will act on VAWA upon their return.

Rather than take up a House bill crafted similarly to the bipartisan Senate VAWA reauthorization bill (S.1925), some members of the House crafted their own version, H.R. 4970.  In doing so, they cast aside the input that went into S.1925 from literally thousands of advocates, law enforcement, and prosecutors from across the country.  They also ignored the opposition of every major national advocacy group on domestic violence and sexual assault,  plus hundreds of other national organizations.

H.R. 4970 not only strips away the added protections for Native women and LGBT people from the Senate VAWA bill (S.1925), but also rolls back critical protections for immigrant victims that have been a part of VAWA for nearly 20 years.  This bill seriously weakens VAWA and places some of the most vulnerable victims at greater risk.

Furthermore, based on the false notion that victim services providers are wasteful with VAWA funds, H.R. 4970 also burdens VAWA grant recipients with unworkable and excessive audit and oversight requirements on top of the already stringent requirements that exist in the law as it is.  From a program perspective, these provisions will take away important time and money spent serving victims and put it into managing the “paperwork” aspects of the grants.

VAWA has historically included many similar protections for vulnerable groups of victims, and, in the past, was passed almost unanimously by both the House and Senate with favorable votes from Georgia’s Congressmen.  It is important that we take time to educate Georgia’s Congressmen about the need to protect ALL victims, regardless of their immigration status or sexual orientation.

Follow up with your Congressman!

Please take time to thank Georgia’s Congressmen who stood up for ALL victims and voted NO on H.R. 4970:

Congressman Sanford Bishop – (202) 225-3631

Congressman Hank Johnson – (202) 225-1605

Congressman John Lewis – (202) 225-3801

Congressman Paul Broun – (202) 225-4101

Congressman David Scott – (202) 225-2939

Please also take time to reach out to Georgia’s Congressmen who voted yes on this harmful bill to express your concern about their vote.  Let them know that VAWA legislation must protect ALL victims.

Congressman Jack Kingston – (202) 225-5831

Congressman Lynn Westmoreland – (202) 225-5901

Congressman Tom Price – (202) 225-4501

Congressman Rob Woodall – (202) 225-4272

Congressman Austin Scott – (202) 225-6531

Congressman Tom Graves – (202) 225-5211

Congressman Phil Gingrey – (202) 225-2931

Congressman John Barrow – (202) 225-2823

Please note that, although these Congressmen voted in favor of this harmful version of VAWA, most if not all of them DO support the effort to address domestic violence and sexual assault.   By following up in a respectful way that seeks to educate, we can shift the perspectives of our Congressmen to help them see the need to protect ALL victims!

Next steps

At this time, a conference committee will meet to reconcile the differences between the Senate and House versions of the bill.  There will be a chance for you to advocate for adoption of the provisions of the Senate VAWA bill to ensure that ALL victims are protected, so stay tuned!

Thank you for your calls and emails to Georgia’s Congressmen!!  We appreciate your support!

You can find the name and contact information for your Representative by clicking here.

HR 4970 is harmful to victims because it:

• Removes existing protections for immigrant women.  Specifically, it eliminates the confidentiality of VAWA petitions for protection by allowing immigration officials to contact a battered woman’s abusive spouse, tipping off the abuser to the victim’s efforts to leave. It also weakens the U-Visa process for victims of serious crimes such as rape and sexual assault.
• Omits language to ensure lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered persons do not face discrimination when seeking services from VAWA funded programs.
• Omits language designed to protect Native American women by allowing tribal authorities to prosecute their abusers.

For a detailed fact sheet, click HERE.  **NEW**

Based on the false notion that victim services providers are wasteful with VAWA funds, HR 4970 also burdens VAWA grant recipients with unworkable and excessive audit and oversight requirements on top of the already stringent requirements that exist in the law as it is.  This will divert precious grant dollars and time from direct services to victims.

The additional oversight and audit provisions in HR 4970 have been championed by so-called “men’s rights” groups, such as SAVE, as a way to slowly chip away at VAWA and the life-saving services it provides.  SAVE purports that VAWA grant recipients engage in widespread fraud and waste of government funding.  This group also actively seeks to undermine the work of victim advocates by spreading misinformation about the rate of false allegations of domestic violence and sexual assault, declaring June as “False Allegations Awareness Month.”

For more detailed information about HR 4970, please visit http://4vawa.org.

Please take just a few minutes to call or email your Congressman to urge him to oppose HR 4970.  Many Congressmen, unaware of the impact that these dangerous bill provisions would have, are poised to vote in favor of this terrible bill.  It is up to advocates and concerned citizens to educate them about the very real harm that HR 4970 could do!

Thank you for your continued advocacy!!!

Georgia’s U.S. Representatives need to hear loud and clear that all victims should be protected and that victim service providers cannot endure additional bureaucracy.

You can find the name and contact information for your Representative by clicking here.

The backstory

The VAWA reauthorization bill – S.1925 – passed the U.S. Senate last week with bipartisan support.  S.1925 was carefully crafted with based on interviews with more than 2,000 law enforcement, court, prosecution, legal services, and victim services professionals from across the country, and it includes needed protections for immigrant, LGBTQ, and Native American victims.

The U.S. House of Representatives must now pass its version of the bill before it can move to the President for his signature.  H.R. 4271 is the House bill that most closely parallels S.1925.

Unfortunately, some members of the House have introduced a different bill – the Cantor-Adams bill – that weakens or deletes entirely some of the vital improvements in S.1925, including the provisions designed to increase the safety of Native women and address the needs of the LGBTQ community.  The bill also contains damaging provisions that create obstacles for immigrant victims seeking to report crimes, increase danger for immigrant victims by eliminating important confidentiality protections, undermine effective anti-fraud protections, and roll back years of progress to protect the safety of immigrant victims.  Finally, the Cantor-Adams bill adds additional red tape to victim service providers using these funds.

We must tell Georgia’s U.S. Reps that we strongly oppose the Cantor-Adams bill.  The Cantor-Adams bill is DANGEROUS for victims because:

• it claims to support “true victims” but instead further endangers victims by taking away victims’ protections-like access to shelter and access to justice
• it rolls back VAWA protections
• it abandons Native women, immigrant and LGBT victims

1. Women could die from provisions stripping confidentiality for immigrant victims petitioning to keep themselves and their children safe – and we can’t support a bill that would tell an abusive partner where the victim is and what the victim is doing
2. The bill allows batterers on Tribal lands to go free -  and we can’t support a bill that protects batterers on Tribal lands but won’t protect victims
3. The bill leaves LGBTQ victims isolated and alone because this bill thinks LGBTQ victims are not the “right” victims worthy of help

• it assumes that small non-profits struggling to shelter and support victims are committing fraud at high rates while nothing supports this claim. Advocates will have to re-direct their attention from victims to paperwork.  The bill wants to grow bureaucracy at the expense of victims’ services.  We want to grow services, not bureaucracy
• it is NOT the REAL VAWA

Thank you for your continued advocacy on this important legislation!

“I am/the members of my organization are constituents and we need Senator Chambliss/Senator Isakson to vote for S. 1925.  S. 1925 is the real VAWA and has protections and services for ALL victims.  A vote for any other bill or unfriendly amendment is a vote AGAINST VAWA.”

• Senator Saxby Chambliss at (202) 224-3521
• Senator Johnny Isakson at (202) 224-3643

S. 1925 protects victims and must pass.  A vote for any other bill or a vote for any amendment is a vote AGAINST VAWA. (See a recent Washington Post article that outlines key provisions in S. 1925.)

A harmful substitute bill – the Grassley-Hutchison substitute – will likely be offered up as an alternative to S.1925.  This substitute bill includes damaging and unworkable provisions that will harm victims, cost money, and create new bureaucracies and unnecessary inefficiencies that would divert precious dollars from services.  It was drafted without input or consultation from the thousands of professionals engaged in this work every day.  You can learn more about this substitute bill HERE.

The real VAWA – S. 1925 – was carefully crafted with new provisions and refinements based on interviews with more than 2,000 law enforcement, court, prosecution, legal services, and victim services professionals from across the country.  S. 1925 builds upon the past successes of VAWA, increasing its effectiveness and reaching more victims, while decreasing the total amount of federal funding by 20%, eliminating 13 programs and streamlining another ten programs into three.  You can learn more about the real VAWA reauthorization bill – S. 1925 – HERE.

Thank you for your continued advocacy!  We will keep you posted!

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Reauthorization bill, S. 1925, is now on the floor of the U.S. Senate, and a vote is imminent!

If you have not done so already, please take just a few minutes to contact both Senator Chambliss and Senator Isakson and urge them to vote YES on Senate Bill 1925 as is!

• Senator Saxby Chambliss at (202) 224-3521
• Senator Johnny Isakson at (202) 224-3643

Let them know that you are a constituent and that you are counting on them to support Georgia’s efforts to end domestic and sexual violence.

VAWA gives law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges the resources they need to hold offenders accountable, keeps communities safe while supporting victims, and provides critical funding for prevention and education. It is absolutely essential to the work we do. For more information on why we must reauthorize VAWA, click HERE.

Thank you for making these calls! EVERY call makes a difference!

If signed into law, House Bill 711 will take effect January 1, 2013.

House Bill 711 had the overwhelming support of many legislators, most notably House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey, the primary sponsor of the bill.  Please click here to see how your Senator voted and here to see how your Representative voted, and then take time to send an email or make a short phone call thanking them for their support!  You can find their contact information at http://gcadv.org/what-we-do/public-policy/find-your-state-legislators/

Many thanks to the advocates, prosecutors, and allies across the state who contacted their legislators to urge passage of this bill!  Without your calls, emails, visits, and committee testimony on this bill, we would not have this important victory for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault!

Thanks to your phone calls and emails, House Bill 711 has made it to the full Senate for a vote.  If it passes, it will then move on to Governor Deal for his signature.  Please email or call your Senator as soon as possible to let them know that you support this bill and would like him or her to vote YES!

House Bill 711 would give prosecutors more tools to hold batterers accountable, while also protecting the communications between domestic violence and sexual assault program advocates and the victims they serve.

You can find the name and contact information for your Senator by visiting http://gcadv.org/what-we-do/public-policy/find-your-state-legislators/

House Bill 711 will

• Enhance the ability of prosecutors to hold perpetrators of domestic violence accountable.
• Protect the confidential relationship between advocates and victims.  This information, such as advocate testimony and release of records, is often sought solely to discredit these victims of crime.
• Brings Georgia’s law into the mainstream.  The vast majority of other states already have enacted similar statutes, including the southeastern states of Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Florida.

Thank you for helping in this final push for House Bill 711!