Email from PA Sen. Bob Casey

Dear Friends,

One in five: that’s how many women will be raped in their lifetime. One in six: that’s how many women will be victims of stalking in their lifetime. 1.3 million: that’s how many women were raped in 2009. Twenty-four people per minute are victims of sexual assault, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States, and women are disproportionately affected by these crimes.

These numbers come from the results of a survey released last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. The survey indicates that the rate of domestic and sexual violence in the United States is endemic. If this were influenza, it would be a national crisis, and we would be throwing all our resources at the problem. This is a national crisis.

One in four women will be a victim of domestic or sexual violence at some point in their lives, and it is critically important to ensure that their needs are met. As Pennsylvania’s Auditor General, I established a leave policy to enable employees who were victims of domestic violence to take paid leave while seeking legal or medical assistance.

At the federal level, there are simple policy steps we can take to improve the resources available to victims of violence. One such initiative I have supported, the Healthy Families Act, would extend the leave policy which I established in Pennsylvania to all workers covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act. Victims of domestic violence or sexual assault may need to seek medical attention, legal assistance, or take other steps to protect themselves from future abuse; they should not have to worry about losing their jobs or sacrificing their income to do so.

One of the most immediate steps we can take to help victims is to pass S. 1925, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, which I am cosponsoring. This legislation will extend the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the signature federal law to combat all forms of violence between intimate partners that expired in September. The United States Senate is currently considering the bill to reauthorize VAWA, and it is critical that we pass this bill promptly.

The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act makes important updates and improvements to VAWA, extending its successful programs for an additional five years. It streamlines the law, consolidating programs to ensure that the limited resources we have are being used to help as many victims as possible. VAWA’s funding supports essential services for victims, like shelters and rape crisis centers, hotlines and legal services.

One of the new components included in S. 1925 is based on my bill, the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (Campus SaVE Act), and addresses the fact that college students experience rates of violence higher than other age groups. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, young women age 20 to 24 also experience the highest rates of rape and sexual assault, followed by those 16 to 19. The Campus SaVE Act sets out a clear framework to promote transparency and accountability and addresses the need for education and awareness in the entire campus community. Under the Campus SaVE Act, students will know that if they report being a victim of violence, they will receive an explanation of their rights and the resources available to help them.

Many colleges and universities are doing this right: they have procedures in place to deal with domestic partner violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking; they provide support to victims, and they have prevention programs to educate the community about these terrible acts. But as the statistics indicate, we need to do more.

The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act has the broad support of 60 cosponsors in the Senate, including 8 Republicans. VAWA has traditionally been a bipartisan issue, so it is deeply disturbing to see it threatened by partisan politics.

Swift passage of this legislation will ensure that the necessary steps are taken to protect victims of violence and provide them with the services they need. Remember: in the time it took you to read this piece, dozens more people became the victims of intimate partner violence. It’s time to act.

Sincerely,