RADAR ALERT:
Congress reconvenes next week. Call your Senators today.

There's only one week left until Congress reconvenes. This is a critical week for contacting your Senators about removing the gender-discriminatory language from VAWA. We've made good progress in the House. Now we need to make certain that the Senate's version of the bill is also made male-inclusive.

The bill is currently being worked on by the Senate Judiciary Committee. But we need to convince every member of the Senate that there is a groundswell of support for making the bill male-inclusive.

Please contact both of your own Senators, whether or not they're on the Judiciary Committee:

1. Get the phone number of the Washington, D.C. office for each of your Senators from http://www.senate.gov or by calling the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.
2. Ask to speak with the Legislative Assistant responsible for VAWA.
3. When you speak to the L.A., state that you are a constituent.
4. Explain that you want your Senator to tell the Senators on the Judiciary Committee (or to tell the other Senators on the committee, if your Senator is a committee member) that his/her constituents are telling him/her:
   1. Programs that focus on male victims must receive VAWA funding, just as programs that focus on female victims do.
   2. The House has already added gender-neutral language to the bill. Now it's time for the Senate to build on what the House has done.
5. Repeat from step 1 for your other Senator.

If you want to send something in writing, don't use email or U.S. mail. The anthrax quarrantine can delay delivery of U.S. mail by several weeks. And whether a legislator pays attention to email can vary a great deal from one legislator to another.

Your best choice for written communication is to send it by FAX. Unfortunately, a few legislators' websites list the wrong FAX number. So the best bet is to call the Senator's office and ask for the FAX number. Also ask for the name of the Legislative Assistant responsible for VAWA, so you'll know who to address your FAX to.

Time is short! Call or FAX today!

Date of RADAR Release: August 29, 2005

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To track the current status of VAWA, go to http://thomas.loc.gov and enter the bill number: Senate bill S. 1197; House of Representatives bill H.R. 3402.

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R.A.D.A.R. – Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting – is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of men and women working to improve the effectiveness of our nation's approach to solving domestic violence. http://www.mediaradar.org