news

NEWS
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT
11 October 2000
The US Senate has passed the reauthorisation of the Violence of Women Act by a unanimous vote of 95-0. The Senate's action followed the House of Representatives' approval of VAWA by a vote of 371-1. The only member of Congress to vote against the final passage of VAWA was Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC).

The final version of VAWA was combined into one large package with four other bills. The other bills in the package are meant to:

Help victims of sex trafficking
Authorise $95 million over tow years to aid and shelter victims
Spare victims from deportation and increase sanctions on traffickers and countries that tolerate or condone trafficking
Restrict alcohol sales over the Internet
Discourage parole for rapists and murderers. If a state gives early release or a short sentence to a rapist or murderer, and that criminal commits the same crime in another state: the first state will be required to reimburse the prosecution and incarceration costs of the second state.
Help terrorism victims recover damages from countries that sponsor terrorism.

The VAWA has authorised $3.2 billion dollars in federal spending over five years. Among the provisions are:

$925 million in STO grants. Of this $23 million is set aside for state coalition against sexual assault
$400 million for rape prevention and education
$140 million to stop violence against women on college campuses
$1 billion to help prosecutors track down domestic abusers
$875 million to expand shelters for battered women and their children
$200 million for legal assistance for sexual assault and domestic violence programmes

A copy of the Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 can be downloaded by visiting www.rainn.org/vawa/FinalVAWA.pdf