The Violence Against Women Act was comfortably renewed in the Senate today.
The vote was 78-22. All “no” votes came from Republicans, while all female senators, both Republican and Democrat, backed the legislation. The bill passed through a procedural Senate vote, 85-8, last week, and had 61 co-sponsors.
“Delay isn’t an option when three women are still killed by their husbands or boyfriends every day,” Vice President and primary author of the original legislation Joe Biden said. “Delay isn’t an option when countless women still live in fear of abuse, and when one in five have been victims of rape.”
The VAWA was originally passed in 1994 and has been renewed twice since then. Now, for the first time, gays and lesbians, immigrants and Native American women will have equal access to the act’s anti-domestic violence programs.
“The bill passed by the Senate,” said President Barack Obama, “will help reduce homicides that occur from domestic violence, improve the criminal justice response to rape and sexual assault, address the high rates of dating violence experienced by young women, and provide justice to the most vulnerable among us.”
