RADAR ALERT:
Mr. Biden, We’re Not Done with You Yet!
Senator Joseph Biden has long been the prime mover behind the Violence Against Women Act. He organized the first hearings in the early 1990s. He wrote the legislation and sponsored the bills. He did the arm-twisting. At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings in July, Joseph Biden admitted, "this law is my baby."
And when VAWA goes to the Senate-House Conference Committee in the next few weeks, guess who’s going to be there at the table? Senator Biden, of course.
Whenever Sen. Biden is challenged about VAWA's discriminatory effects, he misleadingly claims that the law has never denied services to men. What he hopes you won't notice is that it denies funding to organizations unless their primary focus is women. Only the traditional DV service providers can receive VAWA funds. Most of them provide little or no help to men, and some have even gone to court to defend their right to discriminate against male victims.
This week, Mr. Biden is going to hear from the thousands of persons who want VAWA to be equitable and fair for men and women alike.
To this point, we’ve succeeded in adding language to VAWA to make it male-inclusive. That’s a first step.
But what good is to say that you can’t discriminate against male victims, but then funnel all the funds to the very groups who have always turned a cold shoulder to men?
VAWA now needs to add language that directs 36% of funds to go to programs that focus on serving made victims. That number comes from the National Violence Against Women Survey, which found that men constitute 36% of all DV victims. [http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles/172837.pdf]
This is the last time RADAR’s Shock and Awe campaign will be calling on you to contact Mr. Biden. So this is it!
- Your best approach: Send him fax at 202-224-0139
- Second best: Telephone his office at 202-224-5042
- Third: E-mail him at
senator@biden.senate.gov
(senator-at-biden.senate.gov)
If you use e-mail, put a short message in the Subject line, like, "36% VAWA Funding for Programs Focusing on Male Victims." Let the good Senator know that you're not taken in by his phony claims of gender neutrality.
For maximum effectiveness, send him a message every day this week. As always, keep your message short, polite, and reasonable.
VAWA is Senator Biden’s baby. We want this to be a week he never forgets!
Date of RADAR Release: September 25, 2005
Want to improve the chance that they'll pay attention to your letter? Click here.
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.
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
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