(MintPress)— Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) faces Republican opposition in the Senate Judiciary Committee after years of bipartisan support.
VAMA was initially passed in 1994 and signed by President Bill Clinton. It provides funding to enhance investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women. Throughout the years VAMA has been responsible for funding rape crisis centers and hotlines, legal assistance for abuse victims and educates against domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.
The legislation also created programs for community violence prevention and protected victims from being evicted from a residence based on stalking or domestic violence. It has been reauthorized in 2000 and 2005. The updated proposal, co-sponsored by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senator Michael Crapo (R-ID), adds revisions to the act that would ensure gay and transgender women would not be denied services, encouraging them to come forward.
The revision to the bill is as written: “No person in the United States shall on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity funded in whole or in part with funds made available under the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, the Violence Against Women Act of 2000, the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2011, and any other program or activity funded in whole or in part with funds appropriated for grants, cooperative agreements, and other assistance administered by the Office on Violence Against Women.”
Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) since then proposed counter-legislation that would reauthorize the act, but reduced authorized funding levels by $135 million from the 2005 reauthorization levels. His measure was defeated along party lines.
The bill has garnered unanimous consent in past reauthorizations. The last reauthorization, in 2005, passed 415-4.
A version of the act is scheduled to be authorized in 2012, but the current fractured political landscape has proven to make it more difficult than in the past.
Source: MintPress
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