Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization

[Lori]

I recently came across a link requesting signatures for a petition to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. From what I read on the site, this act encompasses the following:

<blockquote>VAWA '94 bolstered prosecution of child abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence; increased victim services; increased resources for law enforcement; and created a National Domestic Violence Hotline. If Congress does not begin the process to reauthorize these programs by the end of this year, their funding will be threatened. ... H.R. 357, VAWA '99, not only reauthorizes VAWA '94 in Title I, but also includes: legal services for battered women and victims of sexual assault; increased funding for rape prevention and education; funding for transitional housing programs for women escaping violence; increased attention to the impact of violence on women's work lives; provisions that address the effects of domestic violence on children such as supervised visitation centers for children in domestic violence situations; legislation on hate crimes prevention; and increased attention to violence in the lives of certain women, such as older women, disabled women, immigrant women and Native American women. </blockquote>

Sounds like good stuff to me!

But, I'm not one to blindly sign petitions - and the government link to the complete text of this act would take me a few weeks to read (although I did spend a lot of time there) - so I'm looking for anyone with any background in this area, familiar with this act, or offering any pros and cons. I'd like to hear some opinions before providing a free commercial and a link to the site.

Thanks,
Lori

[Scott Danziger]

test

[Lori]

Well this topic died rather quickly - but the issue is still out there - I find myself wondering why we even need legislation for things like this - but it seems that we do - and that the first VAWA has done a lot of good. Here's a link to the proposed re-authorization: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c106:H.R.357:

Heavy reading, as I mentioned before, but the link is a good search engine for any bills that you may be interested in regarding legislation of interest to you.

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Lori