ACTION ALERT: Call Your Members of Congress and Ask Them to Support H.R.1585, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019!

March 8, 2019

Please forward widely!

House Judiciary Crime subcommittee Chairwoman Karen Bass (D-CA-37) and Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA-1) have just introduced H.R.1585, the bipartisan Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019! This important legislation reauthorizes VAWA grant programs and makes modest yet vital enhancements to existing law. Among other things, H.R.1585:

  • Invests in prevention;
  • Ends impunity for non-Native perpetrators of sexual assault, child abuse co-occurring with domestic violence, stalking, sex trafficking, and assaults on tribal law enforcement officers on tribal lands;
  • Improves enforcement of court orders that require adjudicated domestic abusers to relinquish their firearms;
  • Improves access to housing for victims and survivors;
  • Protects victims of dating violence from firearm homicide;
  • Helps survivors gain and maintain economic independence;
  • Updates the federal definition of domestic violence for the purposes of VAWA grants only to acknowledge the full range of abuse victims suffer (does not impact the criminal definition of domestic violence);
  • Maintains existing protections for all survivors; and
  • Improves the healthcare system’s response to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking.

Call your REPRESENTATIVE now and ask them to SPONSOR H.R.1585.

Then call your SENATORS and tell them the Senate needs to introduce a bill WITH THE PROVISIONS in H.R.1585 – half-measures such as a straight reauthorization are not acceptable, nor are rollbacks of existing protections for survivors!

********************************

We are at a crucial moment in the movement to end domestic and sexual violence. High profile stories of abuse and assault are bringing these topics to dinner tables across the country and inspiring some survivors to come forward. And when they ask for help? Programs and protections created by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) increase their access to safety and justice.

Urge your Representative to co-sponsor this lifesaving legislation, HR1585, today. Congress has the opportunity to build on VAWA’s successes and reach more victims. Today, Representatives Karen Bass (D-CA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) introduced a bipartisan bill to renew and improve VAWA. VAWA has been incredibly successful in transforming our nation’s response to domestic violence and sexual assault. Yet so much remains to be done to ensure that all survivors are fully supported and have options to keep themselves and their children safe. Now is the time to invest in responding to and preventing domestic and sexual violence. We must reduce barriers and increase access for all survivors. We need a VAWA that tells survivors, “We are here for you. You will be heard. And helped.” Contact your Representative today and urge them to co-sponsor VAWA H.R.1585.

Thank you for your advocacy. Survivors everywhere are safer because of your commitment and action.

HR 1585, Public Policy, VAWA, Violence Against Women Act