Vermont Business Magazine Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) Wednesday joined Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and others in introducing the Senate companion to the House-passed Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Reauthorization.
This year’s VAWA reauthorizes programs through 2026 and strengthens the law in several ways, including by strengthening rape prevention and education efforts and services, providing support for legal services funding and trauma informed law enforcement responses, and expanding and authorizing programs to ensure access to survivors in rural areas, survivors requiring culturally specific services, and LGBT survivors.
This reauthorization notably creates a new Restorative Practices grant program, administered through the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women. This program is an especially noteworthy step forward for Vermonters and the National Center on Restorative Justice at The Vermont Law School, who have been leading the nation on advancing restorative justice practices.
Leahy said: “Today survivors and victim advocates are calling for further improvements to VAWA. I am proud to again stand with them in introducing legislation that has bipartisan support in the Senate. I often talk with survivors and advocates when I am home in Vermont. I hear the heartbreaking stories of people trying to rebuild their lives, particularly in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. I still have searing images of my work with victims of domestic violence from my time as a prosecutor in Vermont. The programs that VAWA supports make a real difference to these survivors and to their families. We owe it to them to get this bill signed into law without delay.”
Vermonter Karen Tronsgard-Scott, Executive Director of the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, said: “The provisions in the Violence Against Women Act are vitally important to survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking and sexual assault as well as to their families and communities. Each time VAWA is reauthorized there is the opportunity for making improvements to the law that result in improvements in responses and approaches to these devastating issues.
Tronsgard-Scott continued: “This bill strengthens our commitment to survivors, especially survivors from traditionally marginalized communities. It also offers the opportunity to build innovative, community based responses like the use of restorative practices to address the needs of survivors. For far too long we have relied solely on a criminal justice response to domestic violence, dating violence, stalking and sexual assault. These approaches give survivors who do not wish to engage the criminal justice system access to other forms of justices which can be designed in response to their to their individual needs. We are grateful for Senator Leahy’s leadership and his vision in designing the current reauthorization bill.”
Stephanie Clark, Director of the National Center on Restorative Justice, said: "The National Center on Restorative Justice is encouraged by the Senate’s inclusion of a restorative practices pilot program in their introduction of the bipartisan Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization. This marks a pivotal moment that recognizes the importance of expanding options available to harmed parties or victims, including voluntary restorative processes."
Dr. Lindsey Pointer, Associate Director of the National Center on Restorative Justice, said: "Restorative justice practices provide an avenue for healing and accountability in the wake of significant harm. In cases of domestic and sexual violence in particular, having an optional community-based restorative approach provides a way for harmed parties to voice the impacts they’ve experienced and their needs moving forward."
Leahy was the author and chief sponsor of the last successful VAWA reauthorization bill that he steered through the Judiciary Committee and the Senate in 2013, and which now has expired. Leahy’s 2013 law had strengthened VAWA and its grant programs by expanding protections for particularly vulnerable communities, as well as renewing the landmark legislation. The programs authorized under VAWA are used throughout Vermont in addressing domestic violence and other issues.
The full text of the legislation is available here.
WASHINGTON (WEDNESDAY, Feb. 9, 2022) – Senator Patrick Leahy