VAWA 2005: A Victory for Women

December 21, 2005 -

 

Legal Momentum, the nation's oldest women's legal rights organization, calls on President Bush to sign the Violence Against Women's Act (VAWA) into law. Legal Momentum chairs the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence against women and played a major role in the initial passage of this legislation in 1994 and its 2000 and 2005 reauthorizations.

"This groundbreaking legislation will make a tremendous difference in stopping violence against women and helping victims," said Lisalyn R. Jacobs, Vice President of Government Relations for Legal Momentum. "We urge President Bush to waste no time in signing VAWA 2005 into law. Senators Biden, Specter and Leahy, and Cong. Sensenbrenner and Conyers have given victims of domestic and sexual violence the desperately needed gifts of continued safety and hope this holiday season." VAWA 2005's significantly enhanced protections

  • For the first time, provides funding for programs that provide direct services to victims of sexual assault
  • Protects domestic violence victims from being evicted from public housing and from losing housing subsidies as a result of the criminal acts of their abusers.
  • Creates a national resource center to help employers understand and appropriately respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking victims' needs at work.
  • Reassures and protects trafficking victims by reuniting them with family members from abroad (who may have been under threat by the traffickers) and increases access to permanent residency for those who cooperate in traffickers' prosecution.
"This legislation insures that any victim of domestic violence, trafficking, and sexual assault can walk into any legal services agency and for the first time ever get help," says Leslye Orloff, Immigrant Women Program (IWP) Director.
The latest renewal extends the legislation for five years and increases funding by twenty percent to $3.9 billion.