Snowe Votes to Reauthorize Violence Against Women Act
Statement
U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), a co-sponsor of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (S. 1925), hailed passage of the legislation by a 68-31 vote in the United States Senate. The bill, which reauthorizes the landmark 1994 law for four years, provides assistance to states to improve law enforcement and prosecution efforts combating violence against women and funds shelters and services to help women and their families extricate themselves from violent and abusive situations and into safety.
Senator Snowe said:
"For far too long, domestic violence has been an extremely serious and common crime that devastated families and silently took a great toll on our society. Decades ago, domestic violence went largely unreported, in part because the victim viewed the violence as personal, or because of they were afraid of retribution, or they were embarrassed and didn't want family members, friends, or neighbors to know. So in 1994, Congress enacted comprehensive legislation to combat this violence, and the results thus far are encouraging. Reporting of domestic violence has increased as much as 51 percent according to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, while the annual incidence of domestic violence has fallen by more than 50 percent.
"This bill the Senate passed today successfully builds upon past strides at both the state and federal levels. It includes a number of judicial improvements, such as encouraging the use of best practices among law enforcement and court personnel to better assess the risk of domestic violence homicide and to provide immediate, crisis intervention services for those at risk of escalating violence. It also reauthorizes grants to encourage arrest policies and enforce protection orders, and places an increased emphasis on reducing rape kit backlogs which number in the hundreds of thousands. I urge the House to take immediate action, so we can get this critical legislation to the President's desk."
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