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The US capital Rotund Rotunda is empty Monday following the partial closure of the government. The closure affected the administration of the law on violence against women, which expired Friday at midnight.
Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
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Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
The US capital Rotund Rotunda is empty Monday following the partial closure of the government. The closure affected the administration of the law on violence against women, which expired Friday at midnight.
Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
The partial closure of the US government, which affects more than 800,000 federal public servants and many government agencies, also has implications for the Violence Against Women Act, which expired Friday at midnight.
In addition, the House and the Senate have spending agreements containing clauses that would have extended the VAWA law until February 8.
But because the future of the law has become inextricably linked to the broader budget debate, which Democrats and Republicans rely on for funding a wall at the border, it has not been re-auth orised.
VAWA funds and administers many programs to assist victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Its expiration does not prevent all these programs from being administered – according to the Washington Post, grants already granted under the law will not be affected. But future payment claims from programs receiving VAWA funding will be delayed until the law is re-authorized.
According to Roll Call, the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Social Services manage most VAWA programs. Some VAWA programs administered by HHS may continue to receive funding even if their expiry date has expired. Congress approved funding for HHS for the 2019 fiscal year in September. But funding from the Ministry of Justice is linked to the ongoing budget debate.
In a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan in September, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi blamed Republicans for only short-term reauthorization. from VAWA.
When the law was to expire earlier this year on September 30, it was extended until December 7. And before it expired on December 7, it was again extended by a short-term bill. This extension ended on December 21 as the government began its partial closure.
In his letter, Pelosi refers to a bill introduced by Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, in July. The bill expands and extends the VAWA Act by introducing additional measures prohibiting the sale of firearms to persons subject to a protection order and to persons convicted of criminal harassment.
Roll Call reported earlier this month that the gun clauses were probably the reason why no Republican supported Jackson Lee's bill. He has never been brought to the floor of the house.
In September, 46 House Republicans signed a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, urging them to reauthorize VAWA's authorization. "It's not a partisan issue," the letter says. "VAWA has been continuously reauthorized on a bipartisan basis in Congress, and we must act now to maintain and strengthen this crucial law." The letter did not encourage the adoption of a specific bill.
The last time VAWA was reauthorized, it was in 2013 and the fight was a little political. According to NPR's Eyder Peralta, some Republicans have challenged provisions providing new protections for Aboriginal women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
The law on violence against women was adopted for the first time in 1994 by a congress gathering an unprecedented number of women. Most of the women who served at this Congress were elected in 1992, a year after Anita Hill's testimony before Congress during Supreme Court Justices Confirmation Hearings, Clarence Thomas.
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