Mary Beth Polley | Fall 2000 Headlines

Senate must act to preserve $33 million in aid for violence against women

By Mary Beth Polley

More than $33 million in federal funding for domestic abuse and sexual assault programs in Massachusetts could be lost if Senate does not move quickly to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

VAWA, which funds domestic violence programs throughout the United States, will expire tomorrow unless the Senate takes immediate action and passes the bill. Since VAWA's initial passage in 1994, the act has provided billions of dollars in funding to hire prosecutors, improve domestic violence training for police, nurses, and social workers, and develop domestic violence units within local police forces. VAWA has funded shelters and counseling service as well as establish a national crisis hotline. Unless Congress reauthorizes VAWA within the next few weeks these programs may lose their funding.

The House overwhelmingly reauthorized VAWA in 415-3 vote on Tuesday with local Reps. Edward J. Markey (D-7th) and John F. Tierney (D-6th) voting in support of the bill. The House bill provided $3.6 billion in funding for domestic violence programs nationwide to be spent over the next five years. Massachusetts received approximately $33,700,00 in VAWA funding for the 2000 fiscal year.

The entire Massachusetts Congressional delegation has voiced its support for the reauthorization of VAWA but despite their efforts the bill has not been scheduled for a Senate vote for its expiration date.

"I'm deeply concerned about the way this bill is being held hostage to election year politics," said Senator John Kerry (D), a co-sponsor of original VAWA legislation in 1994. "We wrote and passed the Violence Against Women Act in bipartisan fashion to respond to a tragic need in Massachusetts and our country, and it has had an important impact - providing life-saving assistance to women across the country, a national domestic violence hotline, battered women's shelters, arming law enforcement with the resources to make a real difference, prosecuting more child abuse cases, and creating rape prevention programs."

According to Juley Fulcher, public policy director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence in Washington D.C., no program funded by VAWA will close its doors on Sunday if the bill isn't reauthorized. The federal appropriations process has left VAWA with a two-week cushion beyond the Sept. 30, 2000 deadline. However, the bill must be reauthorized before Congress adjourns next month.

"It's absolutely critical. VAWA has made an incredible difference in the lives of women all over this country," Fulcher said. "There has been a 21 percent drop in domestic violence since VAWA's inception. Local communities, towns and especially rural communities in small states don't even begin to have access to the money they need for these programs without federal funding."

A portion of the funding finds its way to the Woburn area through local government offices, according to Loni Camus, executive director of the Support Committee for Battered Women based in Waltham.

"It's vital. Absolutely vital to the work we all do," Camus said. The Committee works with 27 Massachusetts towns including Woburn to combat domestic abuse. "The national hotline is an incredible resource. All domestic abuse programs have been able to specialize and diversify. There are now specialized domestic abuse units in police departments, outreach in schools. VAWA funds a myriad of stuff. You wonder how you can continue to provide services without hearing whether or not funding will come through in the next few months."

While the Committee is a privately funded program, almost all the groups that the organization works including the Waltham and Woburn police departments are the beneficiaries of VAWA funds, Camus said. Local police use VAWA grants to create and strengthen domestic abuse units, hire victim advocates and train police and dispatchers to deal with domestic violence.

Camus also runs domestic violence shelter which houses 60 women and children a year, a small percentage of those who come looking for help.

"It's frightening how many women we turn away each year," she said. Camus believes the increasing numbers of domestic abuse victims turning to local shelters and other support programs is the result of increased community awareness and outreach funded in a large part by VAWA, she said.