WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House of Representatives passed today the bipartisan, long-term Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019 (H.R. 1585).

“Since 1994, the Violence Against Women Act has provided critically important protections for women in the face of domestic violence and abuse,” U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) said. “More than 12 million Americans are the victims of domestic and intimate partner violence, making it the leading cause of injury to women. I am proud that we voted today to make our communities safer by increasing investments in both domestic violence prevention and protections.”

Like previous reauthorizations, H.R. 1585 makes vital improvements to address gaps in current law, based on extensive consultation with victim service providers, law enforcement and other experts. 

Those improvements include:

Vital new investments in prevention: 

• Increases the authorization for the Rape Prevention & Education Program (RPE) to $150 million a year from $50 million a year and specifically includes prevention of sexual harassment to its authorized uses.
• Reauthorizes and updates the critical SMART Prevention Program to reduce dating violence, help children exposed to violence, and engage men in preventing violence.

Improved services for victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking: 

• Reauthorizes key grants for programs providing services to the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.
• Includes improvements in the grant program that provides services to the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault who have disabilities.
• Makes improvements in the grant program that provides services for the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault who are older Americans.

Enhanced tool for law enforcement s to combat domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking and to make our communities safer: 

• Reauthorizes the critical STOP (Services, Training, Officers, and Prosecutors) grants and allows the grants to be used to develop law enforcement tools and protocols for preventing domestic violence homicides.
• Reauthorizes grants to improve the criminal justice response to domestic violence, focusing on implementation of offender accountability and homicide reduction.
• Authorizes pilot programs focused on increasing community safety by looking at alternative and community-based methods of survivor safety and perpetrator accountability.

Preserved and improved housing protections for survivors: 

• Includes protections for survivors in federal public, subsidized and assisted housing.
• Reauthorizes critical collaborative grants to increase the long-term stability of survivors who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

Support for survivors who need assistance rebuilding financially: 

• Increases the authorization for the National Resource Center on Workplace Responses, which assists the victims of domestic and sexual violence.
• Protects employees from being fired because they are survivors of sexual assault or domestic violence.
• Protects survivors’ eligibility to receive Unemployment Compensation.

Reinforcement for the health care system’s response to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking: 

• Reauthorizes key grants to strengthen the health care system’s response.
• Broadens the reach of these grants to develop services to address the safety, medical, and mental health needs of survivors, while maintaining the grants’ local focus on providing funds to state domestic and sexual violence coalitions.

Protection for the Office on Violence Against Women: 

• Protects the Office on Violence Against Women in the Department of Justice (DOJ) from being de-emphasized, merged, or consolidated into any other DOJ office.

Closure of some loopholes in current firearms laws in order to help prevent “intimate partner” homicides.  Federal law already prohibits abusers who have been convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors and abusers who are subject to most domestic violence protective orders from purchasing firearms.  This bill closes some loopholes, as follows: 

• Redefines “intimate partner” to include dating partner and former dating partner, thereby expanding firearms laws to prohibit persons convicted of dating violence from possessing firearms.
• Prohibits persons convicted of stalking misdemeanors from possessing firearms.
• Expands the current law that already prohibits those subject to most domestic violence protective orders from possessing a firearm to also include those subject to “ex parte”  protective orders (protective orders issued before a hearing is held), but not until the notice and an opportunity to be heard have been provided to the respondent.