Bills
| 3.23.22

Should Grants Aimed at Preventing Violence Against Women Be Reauthorized? (H.R. 1585)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is H.R. 1585?

(Updated April 17, 2020)

This bill would reauthorize through fiscal year 2024 the Violence Against Women Act’s (VAWA) grant programs, which aim to protect women from domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The VAWA’s most recent authorization lapsed in December 2018. A breakdown of what this bill reauthorizes and reforms can be found below.

Some of the VAWA’s noteworthy grant programs include:

  • Training programs for law enforcement officers to improve their understanding of sexual assault as a crime, their ability to interview victims, and the quality of police investigations.

  • Training programs for district attorneys to help improve their ability to prosecute rape.

  • Training for judges to improve the environment for victims when cases go to trial.

  • Programs encouraging the reporting of sexual assault to police.

  • Funding for victim services and prevention programs at local sexual assault service providers.

  • Funding for sexual assault prevention programs on college campuses.

  • Funding for victim services in underserved areas.

  • Efforts to eliminate the backlog of untested DNA evidence from unsolved rape cases in accordance with the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Reporting (SAFER) Act.

Among the reforms to VAWA programs that this bill would make include:

  • A requirement that relevant law enforcement agencies be notified when a prohibited purchaser previously convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence or stalking obtains or attempts to obtain a firearm.

  • It would be illegal for individuals subject to a temporary protective order to own a firearm (current law only bars gun ownership for permanent protective orders).

  • Requiring states to discourage the use of bench warrants as a means of compelling victim-witness testimony during the investigation, prosecution, trial, or sentencing of a VAWA-related crime or lose VAWA grant funding.

  • Requiring the Bureau of Prisons to develop rules under which a transgender prisoner’s sex is determined according to the sex with which they identify, and to give serious consideration to a transgender or intersex prisoner’s views about their safety given an assignment to a facility with male or female prisoners.

Argument in favor

This reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act would expand and improve the national response to the crisis of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. This bill’s reforms will prevent violence against women.

Argument opposed

The Violence Against Women Act’s programs are too important for Congress to let VAWA become a partisan issue, but unfortunately House Democrats have done just that by including many ideological provisions.

Impact

Women; sexual assault survivors; sexual assault prevention programs; sexual assault survivor programs; sexual assault victim services; DNA backlogs; law enforcement officers; district attorneys; judges; colleges; LGBTQ community; DOJ; HHS; and VAWA.

Cost of H.R. 1585

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) offered the following statement about this bill’s passage through his committee:

“This 2019 reauthorization bill expands the existing protections of VAWA, modernizes and updates its programs, and responds to the needs identified by the survivors and advocates across this nation. I’m disappointed my Republican colleagues on the Committee chose to promote their anti-trans agenda during the VAWA hearing and again today while marking up the legislation. Instead of working with us to strengthen and pass this bill, they chose to offer amendments that would strip gender identity provisions from the bill that were passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2013 and already part of current law. VAWA has always had strong bipartisan support and I ask that our Committee Republicans join our Republican co-sponsor in supporting this 2019 bill to continue this precedent.”

House Republicans opposed this bill in the Judiciary Committee, writing in its committee report:

“Though we agree the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) should be reauthorized, we are disheartened by H.R. 1585… We share the majority’s belief that VAWA should serve the purpose of preventing violence and serving victims, but we believe H.R. 1585 is counterproductive to achieving those goals… Rather than continu[ing] to wield VAWA as a political weapon, we encourage Democrats to work with us on an alternative that preserves and strengthens the program while maintaining its intent.”

A spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association (NRA) told the HuffPost that it would oppose this VAWA reauthorization because of what it calls a lack of due process

“The fact that Nancy Pelosi and her minions of anti-gun zealots insist on adding a gun-control poison pill to an otherwise good bill is just another example of the shameful politics Americans hate and why they have such a negative view of politicians.”

This legislation passed the House Judiciary Committee on a party-lin vote of 22-11 and has the support of 167 cosponsors, all but one of whom is a Democrat.


Media:

Summary by Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: iStock.com / Nevena Ristic)