Women at Risk
News: Congress is junking up the Violence Against Women Act with amendments that won’t help victims of violence.
October 3, 2005
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When Congress gets around to reauthorizing Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which expired last Friday, the legislation will increase federal funding for rape crisis centers, expand services to homeless victims, and hold high-tech stalkers accountable.
But in its 13th-hour reauthorization, the act, passed in 1994 by President Clinton, has been larded with amendments unrelated to violence against women.
One amendment to the 2005 legislation, added by Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and John Cornyn (R-TX), would create a database of DNA samples taken from anyone who is arrested or detained on federal charges, even if they have not yet been convicted. The American Civil Liberties Union, calling it an attack on privacy, is threatening to pull its support for VAWA if the amendment is included in the final bill.
A similar amendment, offered and then withdrawn by Rep. Tom Coburn (R-OK), would have subjected defendants in rape cases to an HIV test, at the request of the victim.
"Some of these may be folks who don't like the Violence Against Women Act, who are hopeful that this will turn out to be a poison pill and bring the bill to a stop," says Lisalyn R. Jacobs of the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women.
The Task Force is also concerned about an amendment by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), which they say downplays the needs of minority victims. The 2005 VAWA included special language to highlight funding programs for racial and ethnic minority communities, a change from the current law, which mentions only "underserved" populations. Sensenbrenner claimed the new wording was unconstitutional because it requested special treatment for certain groups, and wants to the law to revert to the original language. But, says Jacobs, that language has never served minorities adequately. "What we know from those communities is that they were not getting services."
Nearly 200 representatives (including five Republicans) voted against Sensenbrenner's amendment, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in a statement that "With this change, domestic violence prevention and treatment services specifically targeting women of color and immigrant victims of domestic violence and sexual assault will continue to be shortchanged."
Representatives also managed to tack on several other amendments completely unrelated to the issue of violence against women, including:
- Authorizing up to $10 million for the newly-structured Border Violence Task Force in Laredo, Texas. The Task Force does not work to combat domestic and sexual violence, but rather to track crimes committed near the U.S.-Mexico border. -Rep. Cuellar (D-TX)
- Requiring Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) treatment be available to prisoners who have passed a regularly administered drug-screening test for three months. -Rep. Kennedy (D-RI)
- Renewing and increasing funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) and requires a report on whether state and local authorities are "cooperating with efforts to deport criminal aliens." -Reps. Kolbe (R-AR), Dreier (R-CA) and Lewis (R-CA)
The House passed the reauthorization bill last Wednesday and the Senate is expected to pass the reauthorization bill this week.
Ann Friedman is an editorial intern at Mother Jones.
For more on VAWA and related issues, see Mother Jones' July/August 2005 special issue on domestic violence.
