Today is the 20th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act being signed into law. This legislation provides funding to law enforcement to investigate and prosecute these crimes, gives resources to state and local agencies that help victims, created a national domestic violence hotline, and made all states enforce protection orders issued by other states. Later updates to the bill have created tougher penalties for federal domestic violence and stalking crimes. And since 1994, the rates of domestic violence have declined, though plainly we still have lots of work to do. Just last year, we reauthorized VAWA. Surprisingly, this was considered controversial in 2013 and 138 members voted against it in the House. I was not one of them. I was proud to vote for the Violence Against Women Act and when we debate these issues in the House again, you’ll know where I stand.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 15:52:33 +0000
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