Poor women and their families are facing a super
storm of grim outcomes. Not only will the severe cuts to critical
domestic-violence, sexual-assault, and human-needs services devastate
low-income victims and the providers that serve them and their families, but
the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act also remains held up in
Congress after its expiration more than a year ago. This lack of needed
legislation combined with severe funding cuts will seriously undermine the
support services and assistance from law enforcement that low-income women rely
on to escape abusive situations, protect their families, and seek justice.
This is particularly troubling because low-income
women are uniquely at risk for domestic violence. Though women of all income
levels can experience domestic violence, women who live in economically
distressed households and neighborhoods are more likely to experience domestic
violence. Women without their own financial resources or who are economically
dependent on their abuser are more likely to stay with their abuser or return
to their abuser if they have already left, and they are less likely to get a
restraining order against their abuser. This situation leaves low-income women
trapped by their lack of financial resources, a circumstance that is often
exploited by abusers to keep these women and their children in a cycle of
violence. To make matters worse, children who witness domestic violence are
more likely to perform poorly in school, experience behavioral problems, and
develop longer-term problems such as depression and a tolerance for violence in
relationships.
The House continues to drag its feet on the Violence
Against Women Act
This Thursday the House of Representatives will vote
again on reauthorizing the long-stalled Violence Against Women Act. Originally
enacted in 1994, and subsequently reauthorized in 2000 and 2005, the Violence
Against Women Act was the first comprehensive effort in our country to tackle
domestic violence and provide new law-enforcement tools and support services to
victims. The law provided programs for violence prevention, investigations, and
prosecutions. It also provided new service resources for victims that are
particularly important to low-income women, including court-appointed special
advocates, a national domestic-violence hotline, services for runaway youth,
new funding for domestic-violence shelters, and programs for battered immigrant
women, Native American women, and other underserved populations.
Because the need was so great, the Violence Against
Women Act sailed through Congress three times with overwhelming bipartisan
support—until now. For the first time in its history, the legislation failed to
make it through Congress and to the president’s desk. Why? House Republican
leadership dug in its heels and refused to include new protections for Native
American women, gay and transgender individuals, and immigrant women who were included
in the Senate version of the bill that passed with a rare bipartisan
supermajority of 68 senators, including the affirmative vote of every female
member.
During this Congress, the Senate fast-tracked a
nearly identical bill and passed it with even stronger support—78 votes to 22
votes. In a move even more cynical than before, House leadership proposed a
watered-down alternative bill that fully stripped the gay and transgender
provisions and added a loophole—essentially a “get out of jail” toolkit for
non-Native men who abuse Native women. But due to this partisan hardline
position, 19 Republican House members are now standing up to House leadership
demanding the passage of a fully inclusive Violence Against Women Act similar
to the Senate version. It now seems more promising that Congress will finally
do the right thing and get a bill to the president’s desk.
The ability to call a national hotline for support,
escape a violent spouse, protect a sexually abused child, or be represented
properly in court without an abuser’s interference—all of these services are in
danger without the bill’s reauthorization. The anticipated new version of the
Violence Against Women Act would even expand housing support, which is critical
considering that violence against women is one of the primary causes of women’s
homelessness. These housing protections are crucial and are often the primary
pathways out of violence for low-income women who lack economic independence
from their abusers.
Sequestration will devastate low-income victims of
domestic violence and their children
The still uncertain reauthorization of the Violence
Against Women Act is only one of the major ways in which low-income victims of
domestic violence are in danger. Current funding for vital domestic-violence
and sexual-abuse programs, as well as other federal programs that support
victims of domestic abuse, are also under threat due to sequestration.
If sequestration goes into effect, funding for the
Violence Against Women Act could be slashed by more than $20 million,
preventing nearly 36,000 victims of violence from obtaining shelter, legal
assistance, and services for their children. The primary funding stream for
domestic-violence shelters, the Family Violence Prevention Services fund, may
see as much as $9 million cut from its budget, reducing services to as many as
113,000 victims. These cuts would come at a time when domestic-violence centers
that provide much-needed assistance are already scrambling. Florida, for
instance, may see a cut in its STOP Violence Against Women Program of more than
$400,000, potentially leaving 1,500 victims in the state without services.
Other federal programs that support pathways to
economic independence for low-income women are also threatened by
sequestration. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, child
care assistance—which eliminates a major barrier to work for low-income women
and provides social and emotional development services to low-income
children—would be slashed under sequestration, resulting in more than 30,000
children losing access to these vital subsidies. And more than 600,000 people
would be cut from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for
Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, an essential program that provides low-income
expectant mothers and their infants with the healthy food, nutrition, and care
they need during this critical phase of their lives. These and other federal
programs provide women and their children with the support they need to escape
violent situations.
The bottom line
No woman should be forced to stay in a violent
situation because our country lacks the political will to provide them with the
resources that they desperately need to protect themselves and their children.
Failing to reauthorize the Violence Against Women
Act and allowing sequestration to take effect will have real consequences for
low-income victims of domestic violence and their families. We know programs
funded by the Violence Against Women Act work. These important programs save lives
and provide women with the services they need to escape abuse. Tomorrow the
House should vote down their partisan bill and pass the strongly bipartisan
Senate bill.
With International Women’s Day approaching on March
8, there will be tremendous worldwide discussion about violence against women.
The United States should take the opportunity to look back on what it has done
in the past to improve the lives of women and children caught in the cycle of
domestic violence—and determine what more can be done to put an end to domestic
violence once and for all. We can continue toward that goal by making sure that
the sequester and the stalled Violence Against Women Act do not further shrink
the programs that provide low-income women and their children with pathways to
free them from violence.
About the authors: Erik Stegman is the Manager of
the Half in Ten Education Fund at the Center for American Progress. Katie
Wright is a Research Associate at the Center.
This article was published by the Center for
American Progress.
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