Get off your Soapbox and Renew Domestic Violence Law [View all]

[MindMover]

Opposition is forming in Congress to the renewal of a landmark 1994 law against, of all things, domestic violence. It is inconceivable that lawmakers could erode progress made in this area for the sake of partisan election-year politics -- or, for that matter, what constituency they're hoping to attract. Do batterers vote Republican?

Like birth control, this is one more endangered policy, primarily affecting women, that once seemed beyond question. Failure to renew the law would derail important protections for battered partners of both genders.
Almost 18 years ago, Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act to provide funding for law enforcement and community organizations to help victims of domestic violence and bring their attackers to justice.

The latest reauthorization was introduced by a bipartisan group of co-sponsors late last year, but it failed to get a single Republican vote in the Senate judiciary committee last month. Democrats got it out of committee, but it faces a vitriolic debate.

How times change. Twice before, the U.S. Senate has renewed this law -- in 2000 and, during Republican George W. Bush's presidency, in 2005. The votes were not just bipartisan but unanimous. This time it's facing a buzz saw of criticism from social-conservative Republicans.

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_20194765/mercury-news-editorial-memo-congress-get-off-soapbox

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Leahy pushes reauthorization of domestic violence bill

WASHINGTON – Sen. Patrick Leahy said he still has nightmares about the fatal crime scenes he viewed during his eight years as a young State's Attorney in Chittenden County.

By Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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By Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Some of those cases involved unreported spousal abuse, committed during a time when victims had "no place to go," Leahy, D-Vt., said during an interview Thursday. Back then, he said, people generally didn't want to talk about "these family things," especially in small towns.

"If they had had someplace to go, or if she could have gone somewhere, maybe (she) could have been protected," he said.

Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he'd share his experiences sometime after Easter break when the Senate takes up the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, or VAWA, the landmark 1994 law designed to assist victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

If the law had been enacted two decades earlier, he said, many of the victims in his spousal abuse cases would have received the help they needed. He said the incidence of domestic violence has fallen by more than 50% since the legislation first passed.

Leahy is the lead author of the reauthorization bill, which would renew authority for Congress to fund a variety of programs.

It would also expand VAWA to ensure victims aren't discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, give tribal courts jurisdiction over perpetrators with significant ties to the tribe in some cases and allow law enforcement to request visas for immigrant victims who are helping their investigations.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-03-29/leahy-violence-against-women-act/53872562/1?

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The screams should be heard from one end of Washington to another.......Pass the Law.......