RADAR ALERT:
Progress in the Senate, Now Time for a Pause

This past week our elected officials were deluged with telephone calls and faxes demanding that VAWA be made male-inclusive. Rest assured that every call and every fax you made helped our lobbyists who are working every day on our behalf. Thank you to everyone who pitched in.

As a result, on Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee approved new language that states, Nothing in this title shall be construed to prohibit male victims of domestic violence...from receiving benefits and services under this title.

The Senate language is not as strong as the House language. But that is not a complete surprise since key VAWA advocates (Kim Gandy of NOW and Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist Majority), worried that our efforts might actually succeed, went to Capital Hill at the last minute to do some serious arm-twisting.

S. 1197 has now been sent to the floor where it awaits a full vote by the Senate. It will likely pass by unanimous consent.

The next step is for the House of Representatives to approve HR 3402. This bill is the budget appropriation bill for the Department of Justice, to which VAWA was added at the last minute. Because appropriations bills are often controversial, House approval may take awhile.

Once the House approves its bill, then VAWA will go to Conference Committee. The Conference Committee will iron out the differences between the Senate and House versions of VAWA. We do not know when this will happen, but it may take several weeks.

But in the meantime, RADAR wants to make a request: We would like to ask each person who reads this Alert to get the name of a man in your state or town who was a DV victim. You may know a male victim personally, or you may have read about him in your local newspaper.

Or go the Equal Justice Foundation website at http://www.ejfi.org/DV/dv-41.htm#DVmen, scroll down to Listings by State, and find a man’s name there.

We don’t want to reveal exactly how we will use this information (we assume our opponents are monitoring our Alerts), but when Shock and Awe shifts back into high gear, you will be using the information about this person.

And remember, we will not rest until VAWA assures that every male victim of domestic violence receives the services to which he is entitled.

Date of RADAR Release: September 11, 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