Democratic and Republican lawmakers have agreed to include reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in their omnibus spending package, Democratic leaders said Wednesday, capping a years-long effort to renew the landmark legislation after it expired in 2019.
“When I first wrote and championed the original VAWA legislation, it helped break a dam of congressional and cultural resistance that too often saw domestic violence as a ‘family issue,’ with legal and social burdens placed on survivors rather than perpetrators,” Biden said in a statement last month. “And while studies have shown that domestic violence and sexual assault rates have declined significantly since VAWA took effect, we know that we still have work to do.”
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