Following 6 hours of debate on Wednesday, 10/11/00, the Senate passed the package of bills including the Violence Against Women Act of 2000, the Sex Trafficking Victims Protection and Aimee's Law. This bill has already been passed by the House, and so goes to the President for his signature. President Clinton has already announced his intention to sign the legislation.

Update 10/11/00 - Senate Vote Scheduled

From the Senate Calendar of Business: The Senate has scheduled 6 hours of debate for Wednesday, 10/11/00, on this bill, plus an additional one hour for Sen. Thompson of Tennessee to address his concerns regarding "Aimee's Law," attached as an amendment to the bill in the House. Assuming Sen. Thompson does not prevail, the vote will then be ordered on a straight up or down basis (no amendments or changes).

Update - 10/9/00

The House of Representatives again passed the VAWA reauthorization on 10/6/00, this time as part of a package of crime bills that included legislation combat trafficking in women and children, and protect women and chilren brought into the U.S. for by the sex-slave industry (H.R. 3244); Aimee's Law, (H.R. 894) under which a state would have to pay for the conviction and imprisonment of a repeat rapist, murderer or sexual offender who is released from prison and commits a crime in another state. Additional provisions make it easier for terrorist victims to collect damages from nations that foster that terrorism, and strengthen the ability of states to block interstate wine and other liquor sales, particularly over the Internet. The Senate leadership has promised to bring the package to the floor for a vote in the week of 10/9/00.

Update - 10/4/00

According to an article by Women's eNews, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott has announced that he intends to add the VAWA reauthorization as an ammendment to the Bankruptcy bill which would force ex-wives to compete with credit card companies to collect child support. Currently, very few obligations survive a bankruptcy filing. Child support and alimony are two of these. The pending bankruptcy reform would add credit card companies to that list.

Included in the bankruptcy legislation is a provision which would prevent those who have violated laws prohibiting clinic violence from using bankruptcy to protect their assets after civil judgments are entered against them. Sen. Lott also has announced plans to strip that provision from the bill.

Dateline: 9/28/00

Four days short of the expiration of the Violence Against Women Act, the House of Representatives finally passed the Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (VAWA 2000). H.R. 1248 reauthorizes and expands programs established by the original Violence Against Women Act, passed in 1994.

Although there have been no research studies on the success of the VAWA, many authorities credit it for dramatic decreases in the incidence of domestic violence and rape. Between 1993, the year before that Act was signed into law, and 1998, rape and sexual assault has declined over 40 percent, and domestic violence against women has dropped by about 21 percent. There were an estimated 1.1 million female victims of domestic violence in 1993, to an estimated 876,340 in 1998. Violence by intimates against men has remained relatively steady for the period: about 160,000 men were victimized by intimate partners in both 1993 and 1998. (Source: National Crime Victimization Survey)

Much of the language of the reauthorization legislation is gender-neutral. For example, the types of violence which the legislation covers is defined using the gender neutral terms "intimate partner" or "spouse," and "offender" or "victim." The definition of "domestic violence" illustrates this:

acts or threats of violence, not including acts of self-defense, committed by a current or former spouse of the victim, by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common, by a person who is cohabiting with or has cohabited with the victim, by a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction, or by any other person against a victim who is protected from that person's acts under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction;'.

Men's rights advocates criticize the law as being "sexist" because the majority of the victims assisted are women. But, as the numbers above attest, that would seem to be attributable to the fact that far more women than men are victims of domestic and sexual violence. To criticize women for being victimized by intimate partners more often than men seems both unreasonable and egregiously unfair.

The bill now goes to the Senate for its consideration. However, there are indications from the Republican leadership that the legislation may not be considered as a stand-alone bill. They have proposed adding the language of the Senate version of the bill (S. 2787) to one of the appropriations bills now pending. This would mean that the House passage of the bill would be, essentially, meaningless. Both houses of Congress must pass the exact same bill for it to become law.

As the bill currently stands, the VAWA of 2000 reauthorizes and funds most of the programs established by the original VAWA, and expands grant availability for programs to train State, local, and tribal personnel to deal with the types of violence covered by the legislation. The Act also provides grant availability for training of sexual assault forensic nurse examiners, supporting the development of sexual assault response teams, and expands the definition of "victim's services" to include advocacy and assistance for victims seeking legal, social, and health care services.

I'll be keeping a close eye on the progress of the VAWA 2000 in the Senate, and will update this report as information is available.

~Karen~