The V Word

S. 1925, the “real” VAWA, has 57 Senate sponsors – Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR) signed on as a sponsor today!!!  We have set March 20^th—the first day of spring—to reach our goal of 60 filibuster-proof sponsors.  We have 3 more to go.  Last week, Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Mark Udall (D-CO) signed.  Please thank our 3 new co-sponsors!  We can do this! 

VAWA has always been intended to serve ALL survivors.  Every version of the bill since 1994 has worked to improve awareness about and expansion of prevention programs and the provision of services that included all victims of sexual, domestic, dating and stalking violence. 

Read more about how S. 1925 enhances protections for underserved populations on our VAWA Fact Sheets page. Underserved populations are those who are provided with inadequate or non-existent services.  Since 1994, VAWA has been about opening doors for all victims of sexual and domestic violence who have historically been ignored or provided with inadequate or substandard treatment and services – whether due to insufficient funds and scarce resources or discriminatory practices. The Leahy/Crapo Bill (S.1925) continues this intent by offering a gateway for greater reach to all victims by: an improved definition of underserved; an enhanced underserved populations grant program; and specific supports throughout VAWA for underserved populations. When you talk with your Senators, please tell them to support S. 1925 because it opens doors for allvictims! 

TAKE ACTION TODAY!

Suggested actions for this week include:

1. Reach our goal for 60 Senate co-sponsors!  If your Senator is not a VAWA sponsor, call them at their Hill office, ask for the staff person who handles VAWA and offer to help them convince their Senator to sponsor S. 1925. 
2. Ask Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to schedule a vote on VAWA!
3. Tweet for VAWA – Join the twitter carnival for #ReauthorizeVAWA on Wednesday, March 7^th at 12pm EST, 11am CST, 10am MST, 9am PST

Action 1:  If  your Senator is one of the 43 who are NOT sponsors of VAWA, call their office today and ask them to co-sponsor S. 1925: When you call, tell your Senator that only S. 1925 represents real, critical, lifesaving protections for ALL victims and all other versions fall short. Check out our new talking points here about why S. 1925 is the only REAL VAWA. Go to theTHOMAS (Library of Congress), select search by bill number, and type in the bill S.1925 for a list of sponsors and thank your Senator if he/she is already a co-sponsor.  Don’t panic if the latest sponsors aren’t there – it takes a few days for their names to be posted.

Suggested Senators who should be a VAWA sponsor:

6 Senators have been VAWA sponsors in the past.  Maybe they just need to be reminded and for sure they need to be persuaded. VAWA programs and services are under-funded and under attack.  It’s time to step up for victims of sexual assault and dating, domestic and stalking violence.  Cochran, Thad  (R-MS), Cornyn, John (R-TX), Grassley, Chuck (R-IA), Hatch, Orrin (R-UT), Hutchison, Kay Bailey (R-TX),  Snowe, Olympia (R-ME)

There are Senators who have expressed interest in (or should care about) VAWA and some have been supportive of program funding and services in the past. Ask them to step up to this crisis: Alexander, Lamar (R-TN), Ayotte, Kelly  (R-NH), Enzi, Michael (R-WY), Graham, Lindsey (R-SC), Heller, Dean (R-NV), Kyl, Jon  (R-AZ), and Lugar, Richard (R-IN).

Action 2: Call Senator Reid’s office with this message:

“We need Senator Reid to continue to be our champion for the whole country. Please sponsor the Violence Against Women Act and schedule S. 1925 for a floor vote as soon as possible.”

If you are not from Nevada call the DC office:              202-224-3542       DC
If you are from Nevada call the Reno office:             775-686-5750      

Action 3: Participate in the #ReauthorizeVAWA Twitter Carnival on Wednesday, March 7th at 12pm EST, 11am CST, 10am MST, 9am PST

HUGE thanks to all who all who have been tweeting about VAWA.  Now we need to make #ReauthorizeVAWA a trending topic on twitter. In order to do that we need a lot of people to tweet messages including the hashtag #ReauthorizeVAWA in a SHORT amount of time.

The bigger a splash we can make by sharing this, the better! 
You can help us trend #ReauthorizeVAWA by tweeting this message on Wednesday, March 7th at noon EST.  Here are some sample tweets:

• We urge all Senators to support the real #VAWA that helps all victims- S. 1925. #ReauthorizeVAWA now! 4vawa.org

• Bring the real VAWA to the Senate floor for a vote NOW. #ReauthorizeVAWA now! 4vawa.org

If you can’t/won’t be in front of your computers or hand-helds at noon you can still send out the post on twitter at noon by signing up at Hoot Suite  and scheduling your message to post on March 7 at noon (just make sure you’re time settings are for EST).  During the Twitter Carnival, you should also retweet and respond to the twitters of others – always including #ReauthorizeVAWA.

Thanks for the terrific tweets already out there! 

Also, be sure to check out and “like” our Facebook page where you can find a toolkit and other action and information items.

If you aren’t on one of the VAWA email lists or want to add members of your staff or state/community leaders to our grassroots alerts e-mailing list, send names and contact information including email to Sean Black, sblack@icasa.org.