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A group of senators announced on Wednesday that they had reached a bipartisan agreement on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (WAVA), after months of negotiations in the Upper House, according to NPR.
The legislation offers resources for victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
Democrats Dick Durbin and Dianne Feinstein and Republicans Joni Ernst and Lisa Murkowski led the Senate talks.
Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, noted that neither party achieved everything they wanted in the reauthorization, but praised the compromise as a step to better address the needs of survivors of domestic abuse.
“Our bill is a compromise,” Durbin said. “It does not include everything that Senator Feinstein and I wanted, nor everything that Senators Ernst and Murkowski wanted. And there are provisions that the four of us wanted to include, like ending the loophole that allows abusers who harm their dating partners to continue to have access to weapons.”
The Illinois senator was referring to the so-called “boyfriend loophole,” which restricts access to firearms for convicted spousal abusers, but in some cases does not impose the same restrictions on partners that. not being married, have been accused of abuse.
The original Violence Against Women Act, signed in 1200 by then President Bill Clinton, was a historic moment in which the federal government sanctioned more aggressively against people convicted of domestic abuse and provided legal protection to those who accuse their partners of intimate violence.
President Joe Biden, who as a senator played a leading role in passing the original legislation, said in a statement Wednesday that he was “grateful that this critical bipartisan bill is moving forward, and I hope that Congress will deliver it to my desk without delay.” “
In a joint press release, the four senators who defended the Senate bill noted that VAWA had been reauthorized by both Democrats as by the Republicans, in 2000, 2005 Y 2013.
Feinstein and fellow Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy and Dick Durbin were joined by Republican Senators Shelley Moore Capito, Susan Collins, Joni Ernst and Lisa Murkowski and actress Angelina Jolie , which has lobbied for the reauthorization of the bill, to make the announcement. The senators said the bill “will reauthorize and strengthen the historic law of 1994”.
The House of Representatives approved a renewal of the law last year, because the law expired at the end of 2018 but “had little practical effect because Congress continues to fund related programs despite the lack of authorization.”
According to the statement of senators, their bill, which would reauthorize VAWA until 2026, includes provisions to strengthen rape prevention and education efforts, provide funding and increase support for marginalized communities such as LGBTQ survivors and “expand the special criminal jurisdiction of tribal courts to cover non-Native American sexual assault perpetrators.”
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