Along with a bipartisan group of senators, Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie announced Wednesday that reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act is moving forward.
She said those who support the bill will be casting “one of the most important votes you'll cast in the Senate."
According to NPR, the original Violence Against Women Act was signed into law in 1994 by then-President Bill Clinton. The landmark legislation made penalization for domestic abuse more aggressive, provided legal protections for those who accuse their partners of intimate violence and established the Office on Violence Against Woman as part of the U.S. Justice Department.
President Joe Biden, at the time a senator, helped pass the original legislation.
“I look forward to Congress delivering it to my desk without delay,” he said Wednesday.
Since it was first passed, the VAWA had been reauthorized in 2000, 2005 and 2013, under both Democrats and Republicans. It lapsed in 2018 due to partisan disputes in Congress over guns and transgender issues.
However, the lapse did not prevent funding for programs related to the bill, said NPR.
While the House passed a renewal of the act last March, the Senate has spent months in negotiations. During the Wednesday announcement, lawmakers said they had come to an agreement.
With reauthorization of the legislation, the VAWA would be in place through 2026 with new provisions. These include measures to strengthen rape prevention and education efforts, provide legal funding and increase support for marginalized communities and to “expand special criminal jurisdiction by tribal courts to cover non-Native perpetrators of sexual assault,” according to a press release from the senators.
Democrats Dick Durbin and Dianne Feinstein and Republicans Joni Ernst and Lisa Murkowski led the Senate talks, said NPR. Durbin, an Illinois senator, said that some proposed changes to the bill had to be dropped in order to get Republican support.
“There are provisions that all four of us very much wanted to include, such as an end to the loophole that allows abusers who harm dating partners to continue to have access to guns,” he said. Only spouses, former cohabitants or people who share children with victims and are charged with abuse are covered by firearm restrictions, leading the loophole to be called the “boyfriend loophole.”
The National Rifle Association opposed closing the loophole, said ABC News.
“We agreed that we had to introduce a bill that would both deliver the critical assistance survivors across America need and achieve the necessary bipartisan support and pass the Senate,” said Durbin, who serves as the Senate judiciary chair and Democratic whip.
Durbin has not yet announced a timeline for when the bill will appear on the Senate floor. He told ABC News that lawmakers are close to securing the 60 necessary votes to pass the measure.
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