Violence Against Women Act Set for Renewal
Because the VAWA bill is included in the essential omnibus spending package, it could pass the House and the Senate quickly and be signed into law by President Joe Biden in the next few days.
It was last renewed in 2013.
The US Senate is poised to reauthorize an updated, improved version of VAWA, designed to protect women from violent men, after Congress and then-president Donald Trump allowed it to lapse in 2019.
Abuse of women has long been at a critical level, especially by men who use guns to threaten, wound, or kill their wives and girlfriends. Because firearms are so widely used by such perpetrators, and a previous version of the act tightened restrictions on firearms, the National Rifle Association pressured Congressional Republicans to let the act lapse. This year, however, the act will be part of the must-pass 2022 spending package, though it still defers to NRA concerns.
Half a billion to help with enforcement, prevention
The draft of the new bill contains over $500 million in grants to address domestic and sexual violence. However, facing gun-rights groups’ resistance, negotiators removed one important firearms provision—the so-called “boyfriend loophole”—that had delayed the bill since last year. Under that provision, the bill would have prohibited unmarried partners, as well as spouses, from owning a gun if convicted of domestic violence.
Eliminating the loophole enabled the act to move forward despite continued opposition from the Americans Firearms Association (a different gun-rights group than the NRA). The AFA still opposes the requirement that the FBI inform local law enforcement about failed background checks for gun purchases, which they say “could subject law-abiding gun purchasers” to legal proceedings.
New provisions will help Native Americans and law enforcement
Some new provisions in the revised bill expand access for Native American tribes to federal criminal justice resources and broaden tribes’ jurisdiction over crimes committed by nontribal members, including domestic assault and assault on law enforcement officials. The previous bill, reauthorized in 2013, allowed tribes to prosecute nonmembers for domestic violence, but not for assaults on children or on law enforcement officers.
Given the crisis of abuse among tribes in her state, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said the new provisions are extremely important to her constituents.
Must-pass legislation will be signed by President Biden
Because the VAWA bill is included in the essential omnibus spending package, it could pass the House and the Senate quickly and be signed into law by President Joe Biden in the next few days. Biden, when he was a senator, supported the original bill in 1994 and its renewals in 2000, 2005, and 2013. In promising to sign it, the president said, ““It will strengthen rape prevention and education efforts, support rape crisis centers, improve the training of sexual assault forensic examiners, and broaden access to legal services for all survivors, among other things.”
