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February 2006
VAWA 2005 Signed Into Law
Before
adjourning in December, the House and Senate finally reached an agreement on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women
Act. VAWA 2005 passed the House and Senate on December 16th and 17th
respectively, and President Bush signed the bill into law on January 5, 2006. VAWA
2005 will provide critical new resources and protections to improve our nation’s response to domestic violence, sexual
assault, dating violence, and stalking. A brief summary of the bill’s provisions
is included below and a more detailed description (PDF) is available from the National Network to End Domestic Violence. The National Advocacy Center is grateful to the efforts
of Good Shepherd advocates, the National Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence and to Senators Joseph Biden (D-DE),
Arlen Specter (R-PA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI-5), Mark Green
(R WI-8), John Conyers (D-MI), Hilda Solis (D-CA), Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL), Deborah Pryce (R-OH) for their hard work in getting
this important legislation passed.
Highlights of VAWA 2005
Reauthorization and Improvement of Existing Programs
- Reauthorizes all current programs through 2011.
- Increases authorization levels for STOP Grants, Legal Assistance, Court Appointed
Special Advocates, Transitional Housing and many existing grant programs; broadens service provisions to include children
and teens
- Provides stronger privacy protections for victims of domestic violence by prohibiting the disclosure of personally identifying information (broadly defined) unless
compelled by statutory or court mandate—this applies to all VAWA-funded services and is also extended to trafficking
victims; amend the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Program in VAWA to protect personally identifying information of victims
from being entered in the Homelessness Information Management System (HMIS)
- Ensures that “linguistically and culturally specific” services are
available to victims of violence and requires states to analyze and respond to the specific needs of girls in the juvenile
justice system;
- Extends VAWA services to all victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual
assault, and stalking.
New Provisions
- Sexual Assault Services Program – Creates a new funding stream for general
intervention and advocacy for victims of sexual violence, including accompaniment through medical, criminal justice and social
support systems, support service and related assistance. Funds can also be use to provide training, and tech assistance for
various organizations including governments, law enforcement, faith-based, courts and professionals working in legal services,
social services and health care.
- Housing Provisions – Creates new collaborative grants to help place victims
of violence in long-term housing, provide supportive services to promote stability in long-term housing, and create partnerships
to make more affordable housing available; Extends the length of time victims can receive transitional housing services from
18 to 24 months; Protects domestic violence victims from eviction and denial of housing in the Public Housing and Section
8 Housing programs and amends public housing reporting regulations to include services to victims; Provides new funding to
encourage assisted housing providers to create policies and services for victims;
- Health Training and Research – Provides
new funding to educate health professionals about domestic violence, foster public health responses to domestic and sexual
violence, and to research the effects of domestic and sexual violence on healthcare;
- Prevention and Services for Youth – Creates new grant programs to ensure
access of child and youth victims of violence to services and legal assistance, develop appropriate school policies for addressing
violence, and create new partnerships to engage men and youth in violence prevention.
- Communities of Color and Underserved Populations -
Provides new grants to enhance culturally and linguistically specific services for victims of sexual assault, domestic
violence, dating violence and stalking and to fund public awareness campaigns targeting immigrant
and underserved populations.
Immigrant and Trafficking
Provisions
- Prevents the detention and deportation of VAWA-eligible immigrant victims of domestic
violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking by removing obstacles in immigration law, prohibiting the Department of Homeland
Security from seizing victims in shelters, rape crisis centers, or protection order courts, and ensuring confidential treatment
of immigrant victims’ cases;
- Expands VAWA immigration relief to include parents abused by their adults citizen
children and provide greater protection to abused immigrant children, children of battered immigrants, and abused adopted
children;
- Grants employment authorization to all adult victims who have filed valid VAWA
petitions;
- Guarantees immigrant victims of violence access to legal services, regardless
of immigration status;
- Allows trafficking victims’ family members living abroad to receive “T”
visas without having to show “extreme hardship,” improves access to permanent residency for trafficking victims,
and extends the duration of “T” visas to 4 years.
What’s Next
Now
that VAWA has been reauthorized and expanded, the biggest challenge will be ensuring that all of its programs are fully funded. VAWA 2005 authorizes $3.9 billion in spending for victims of violence over the next
5 years. However, that number is a ceiling, not a floor and in the past most
VAWA programs have been funded below their authorized levels. In a year that
promises even tighter budgeting, we will have to work even harder to ensure that VAWA’s critical services receive the
funding they need.
VAWA Links
Legal
Momentum – VAWA 2005 Immigrant Provisions (PDF File)
Family
Violence Prevention Fund – Tracking VAWA Funding
National
Network to End Domestic Violence – Domestic Violence Links
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