VAWA reauthorization may be attached to trafficking bill
Action Needed
Please Send a Message to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott Immediately
There is a chance that a reauthorization of funding for the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) could be considered in the Senate as early as Tuesday, May 20th as part of another bill, H.R. 3244, the Trafficking Victims' Protection Act.
Senate sponsors of the anti-trafficking legislation, Sens. Paul Wellstone (D-MN) and Sam Brownback (R-KS), are hoping to amend the House-approved anti-trafficking bill and move it quickly to the floor.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott may consider allowing a simple VAWA reauthorization (probably jointly proposed by Sens. Biden (D-Del.) and Hatch (R-Ut.) to be attached to H.R. 3244, providing a majority of Senators agree to this. Your calls, faxes or email messages to your Senators (asking them to agree) and to Sen. Lott are urgently needed. To send a message through our online lobbying service.
Please note: while the trafficking bill is rumored to go to the floor tomorrow (Tuesday), it could happen on Wednesday or even later. So please click on the link above (or cut and paste it into your web browser) to send an immediate message.
Brief Background:
As many activists are aware, reauthorization of funding for the programs under the 1994 Violence Against Women Act must occur this year or funding (and many of the programs, including some shelters) will expire at the end of this fiscal year, October 1. Despite thousands of calls, visits, petitions and letters to Congress urging reauthorization, very little has happened. A House Judiciary subcommittee recently began finalizing a reauthorization bill (H.R. 1248), but Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Joe Biden (D-DE) have been working on a compromise bill for several months now with little indication as to when their bill might move to a floor vote. We are concerned because there are only about 50 working days left for this Congress and much other work remains to be done, including passing appropriations measures.
Another measure, the Trafficking Victims' Protection Act (H.R. 3244), that would provide stiff criminal penalties for sex-traffickers and forced-labor-traffickers, and would provide protection for victims, was passed by the House on May 9th, by a voice vote. The legislation has a number of problems in its language defining trafficking and in other provisions, but many of the protections provided victims are positive gains. It is estimated that some 50,000 women and girls are brought into the United States each year for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation; many are recruited under false pretenses and are kept in slavery-like conditions. This problem is reported to be escalating worldwide, especially in developing countries where poverty is endemic. Sens. Brownback and Wellstone have for some time been promoting their own anti-trafficking bills (H.R. 2449, H.R. 2414, respectively), but have apparently decided to adopt the House bill and add a few amendments of their own. Exact wording of those amendments is not known at this time.
Your Message:
Please call or email Senate Majority Leader, Trent Lott (R-MS), and ask him to allow a simple reauthorization bill for the Violence Against Women Act (NOT S. 51, which we do not support, but the Biden-Hatch compromise bill) be attached to the Trafficking Victims' Protection Act. If you have any friends or contacts in Mississippi, please forward this message to them and ask them to call or mail Sen. Lott. Then please call, fax or email (use the link above) each of your Senators and ask them to support adding VAWA to the anti-trafficking bill and to vote for the combined bills. Senators who want to know what is in the simple reauthorization bill should call the Senate Judiciary Committee for copies of the working draft of the Biden-Hatch VAWA reauthorization bill.
Some wording you might use in your short message the Senators:
Please approve attaching the Biden-Hatch VAWA reauthorization compromise bill to H.R. 3244, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which is set for a floor vote very soon. It may even go to the floor on Tuesday, May 23rd. We need to continue these critically important Violence Against Women Act programs that have saved the lives of women and children. Unless the Senate acts soon, anti-violence programs that aid police departments and shelters in our state will expire. I hope that I can count on you to help expedite this important legislation. A copy of the Biden-Hatch compromise can be obtained by calling the Senate Judiciary Committee, 224-5225. Thanks for any assistance you can provide.
Sen. Lott's Majority Leader Office phone number is (202) 2243135; his Mississippi office phone number is (202) 224-6253; fax number is (202) 224-2262.
Here are some senators who really need to hear from advocates (in their home states) on behalf of victims of domestic violence and trafficking : Republicans Abraham (MI). Ashcroft (MO), Collins (ME). Crapo (ID), Fitzgerald (IL), Gorton (WA), Hutchison (TX), Murkowski (AK), Shelby (AL), Smith (OR) and Warner (VA). Or send a message through our online lobbying service.
We are also urging activists to ask their House Members to pass VAWA reauthorization before the Memorial Day Recess. So if you can make that extra call, please do so. The Capitol operator number is (202)224-3121 or send a message to your representative.
What do you think? - Post your comments on the Equalitarian Discussion Board.
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