On September 8, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved, by voice vote, a comprehensive bill (S. 1197) to reauthorize and expand the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The House Judiciary Committee approved its version of the bill (H.R. 3402) on July 27 (see The Source, 7/29/05); however, it only included programs under the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee. VAWA (P.L. 103-322) was first enacted in 1994. It was reauthorized in 2000 (P.L. 106-386) and is set to expire on September 30, 2005.
Prior to approving the measure, the committee adopted, by unanimous consent, a manager’s amendment that made a number of changes and clarifications to the original bill. The committee also approved, by voice vote, an amendment by Sen. Jon Cornyn (R-TX) that would allow the attorney general to collect DNA samples from individuals who have been arrested or detained. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) offered an amendment to the Cornyn amendment that would have limited the collection of DNA samples to individuals arrested for violent felonies. The Feinstein amendment was defeated by a vote of 8-10. Additionally, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) offered and withdrew an amendment that would have required criminal defendants to be tested for HIV if the crime was a sex crime and could have placed the victims at risk of being infected with HIV, or if the victim requested that the defendant be tested. Under the amendment, the defendant would have been required to undergo follow-up tests, and the victim would have to be notified of the results. Lastly, states found in noncompliance with the testing would have been required to forfeit 10 percent of their VAWA funds, and the test results could have been used in the criminal proceedings.
As approved by the committee, S. 1197 would reauthorize STOP grants at $225 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010. STOP grant funding could be used for forensic medical exams for victims of sexual assault; however, states could not require victims to seek reimbursement for such exams from their health insurance, and victims would not be required to participate in criminal proceedings in order to receive such exams.
Grants to Encourage Arrests and Enforce Protection Orders would be reauthorized at $75 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010. Improvements to this grant program would include the establishment of Family Justice Centers.
Legal Assistance for Victims would be reauthorized at $65 million per year for five years. S. 1197 would clarify that legal assistance may be used for civil and criminal case assistance for adult and youth victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
The bill includes a new Violence Against Women Act Court Training and Improvements program, which would be authorized at $5 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010. The program would award grants to improve court responses to adult and youth domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking cases. Additionally, the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) would be authorized to develop a national educational curriculum for state and national judicial educators to ensure that all courts and court personnel have access to information about appropriate court responses to such crimes. A separate tribal curriculum also would be established for tribal court judges.
S. 1197 would include a number of improvements to the enforcement and provision of protection orders, including a clarification that personally identifiable information can not be published on the Internet. Also, a new Grants to Protect the Privacy and Confidentiality of Victims of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking program would be authorized at $5 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010.
The sex offender management program would be reauthorized at $3 million for each of the five years, and the national stalker database would be reauthorized through FY2010.
The bill would authorize $1 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010 for appointing victim assistants for the prosecution of sex crimes and domestic violence crimes in the District of Columbia.
Grants for Law Enforcement Training Programs to identify and protect victims of trafficking would be authorized at $10 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010. The Court-Appointed Special Advocate program would be reauthorized at $17 million in each of the five years. S. 1197 also would amend current stalking laws to include stalking over the Internet and would double the prison sentence for repeat offenders of interstate domestic violence violations, interstate violations of protection orders, or interstate stalking violations.
A new grant program designed to provide support for the establishment, maintenance, and expansion of rape crisis centers and sexual assault coalitions in states and territories would be authorized at $50 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010. The Rural Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Child Abuse Enforcement Assistance Program would be reauthorized at $55 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010. Grants to provide education, training, and enhanced services to women and girls with disabilities who are victims of violence would be authorized at $10 million in each of the five years. Additionally, grants to provide education, training, and enhanced services to women who are 50 years or older would be authorized at $10 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010. The National Domestic Violence Hotline would be reauthorized at $5 million in each of the five years.
S. 1197 would reauthorize rape prevention and education programs at $80 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010. A new Services to Advocate for and Respond to Teens (START) program would be authorized at $15 million in each of the five years to specifically serve victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking who are between the ages of 12 and 24. The bill also would authorize $5 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010 for a new program called Access to Justice for Teens, which would provide grants to encourage cross training and collaboration between the courts, domestic violence and sexual assault service providers, youth organizations and service providers, violence prevention programs, and law enforcement agencies to establish and implement policies serving youth ages 12 to 24.
Another new grants program to support efforts by domestic violence or dating violence victim service providers, courts, law enforcement, and child welfare agencies to develop collaborative responses and services where there is both child maltreatment and domestic violence in the home would be authorized at $5 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010.
Grants to Combat Violent Crimes on Campuses would be reauthorized at $15 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010. The Safe Havens for Children program, which provides supervised visitation, would be reauthorized at $20 million per year for five years.
A new grant program aimed at mitigating the effects of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking on children exposed to such violence would be authorized at $20 million per year for five years. Another $10 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010 would be authorized for grants to develop or enhance programs related to building alliances among men, women, and youth to prevent such crimes, and $7 million per year for five years would be authorized for home visitation programs to develop and implement model policies and procedures to train home visitation service providers on addressing domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. S. 1197 would authorize $2 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study best practices for reducing and preventing violence against women and children.
The legislation would authorize a new grants program to develop interdisciplinary training and education programs for health professionals to understand domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The program would be authorized at $3 million in each of the five years. Another $5 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010 would be authorized for grants to strengthen the health care response to such violence. In addition, $5 million in each of the five years would be authorized for the CDC and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to research effective interventions in the health care setting.
S. 1197 includes a number of provisions aimed at improving housing for female victims of violence. Grants to develop long-term housing options for adult and youth victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking who are currently homeless or are at risk of being homeless would be authorized at $10 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010. Another $10 million in each of the five years would be authorized for grants to combat violence against women in public and assisted housing, and $40 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010 would be authorized for transitional housing programs.
The measure would make several changes to existing public housing laws: incidents of domestic violence, sexual violence, or stalking against a public housing leaseholder could not be used as a “good cause” for terminating a lease; public housing applicants could not be denied simply because they are victims of domestic violence or stalking; and public housing leases could not be terminated because the tenant or the tenant’s family member is a victim of such violence. S. 1197 would clarify that landlords could terminate a domestic violence victim’s lease for other lease violations not related to the violence, such as nonpayment or criminal activity on the property.
S. 1197 would authorize $1 million in each of the five years to establish a National Clearinghouse and Resource Center on Workplace Responses to Assist Victims of Domestic and Sexual Violence.
Protections for immigrant women would be expanded under S. 1197. Currently, T visas are available to trafficking victims who cooperate with law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of the crime. Certain family members also are eligible for the visas, but they must demonstrate extreme hardship in order to qualify. Under the bill, the extreme hardship provision would be removed. Additionally, the bill would extend the issuance of U visas, available to victims of certain crimes who cooperate with law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of the crime, and T visas to four years, with further extensions determined on a year-by-year basis. S. 1197 also would grant the secretary of homeland security the authority to change the status of a T visa recipient to permanent resident after the individual has been present in the U.S. for one year under the visa. The bill would clarify the definition of “VAWA petitioners” to include individuals who have self-petitioned for permanent residency in the U.S. as the battered spouses and children, as well as battered parents, of U.S. citizens and permanent residents and would allow VAWA petitioners who have been approved, as well as T visa recipients, to obtain work permits. Individuals who have filed VAWA petitions, or who have filed for U or T visas, would be allowed to remain in the U.S. without being detained while the application is being considered. S. 1197 also would allow the secretary of homeland security to adjust the status of an individual who entered the U.S. on a K visa (fiancée visa), but did not marry within the allotted 90 days, if the individual can show that they did not marry as a result of domestic violence or extreme cruelty.
S. 1197 contains a section dealing with safety on tribal lands. The attorney general would be required to consult annually with Indian tribes on the administration of VAWA programs. The National Institute of Justice would be charged with conducting a national baseline study to examine violence against Indian women. The study would be authorized at $1 million in each of FY2006 and FY2007. Another $500,000 in each of the two years would be authorized for a study of the incidence of injuries and homicides resulting from domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking against American Indian and Alaska Native women. The study would also examine the health care costs associated with such injuries. The measure would allow Indian law enforcement to enter information into federal criminal information databases and to obtain information from such databases, including identification records, criminal history records, protection orders, and wanted person records. A national tribal sex offender registry and a tribal protection order registry would be authorized at $1 million in each of FY2006 through FY2010, and a Tribal Division would be established within the OVW.
S. 1197 includes provisions of the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (S. 1618), sponsored by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA). The provisions would prohibit an international marriage broker (IMB) from providing personal information about individuals under the age of 18. IMBs also would be required to obtain background information on criminal activity by individuals using their services and provide that information to the foreign woman, to provide the foreign woman with information regarding the legal rights and resources available to immigrant victims of domestic violence in the U.S., and to obtain a foreign woman’s consent to release her contact information prior to doing so. The bill would establish a civil penalty of not less than $20,000 for each violation and a criminal penalty of one to five years in prison. Lastly, U.S. citizens would be prevented from applying for more than one K visa simultaneously, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be required to provide background information on the U.S. citizen to the Department of State and the fiancée. DHS also would be required to conduct a study on the number of IMBs operating in the U.S. and to determine how many marriages are the result of IMB services.
