Today the House of Representatives begins consideration of VAWA. We have been advocating for the bipartisan Senate-passed bill (S. 47), which improves upon current law and includes protections for LGBT victims, Native American victims, immigrants, and victims of violence on college campuses. The House has proposed a VAWA that does not include these protections for all victims. Due in part to grassroots advocacy, enough House Republicans have expressed concerns with the House bill and support for the Senate bill. The House substitute bill will be offered as an amendment to the Senate bill (S.47), to give that version an up or down vote. We urge members to VOTE NO on the House substitute amendment. Should the amendment fail, the House will vote on the Senate bill, S. 47. We urge members to VOTE YES on S. 47.   

1. Call your Representative's office directly, or call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask the operator to connect you to your Representative, which you can look up here.
2. Ask to speak to the staff member who handles VAWA.
3. Tell the staff member you represent __________ community, and you urge them to VOTE NO on the House amendment to VAWA, and VOTE YES on S. 47, the Senate version. If there is time, tell them about domestic violence services and programs in your area. Please THANK them for their hard work. They receive many calls and your friendly thank you goes a long way.
4. Report back to us and let us know what they say.  

*If you are in FL, IL, NE, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TX, WA, WV, these members are priority!   

Sequestration
It was just announced that President Obama will meet on Friday with Congressional leaders of both parties. It is unclear whether progress can be achieved in that meeting and what a compromise could look like but we encourage you to reach out to your Senators and Members of Congress and urge them to weigh in with the following message:

Here are just a few of the programs that would be affected by sequestration:

• WIC - some 600,000 or more low-income women and young children could be kicked off of the WIC program.
• Senior nutrition - programs like Meals on Wheels could be forced to cut as many as 19 million meals for seniors.
• VAWA - domestic violence programs funded by the Violence Against Women Act would lose more than $20 million.
• Senior transportation through the Older Americans Act - 1.9 million senior transportation rides to medical appointments, grocery shopping and other primary needs could be lost.
• Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) - $53 million less funding could mean serving 1.5 million fewer low-income individuals. CSBG is a critical safety net program supporting 1,100 community action agencies across the country that serve as central sources of assistance to low-income populations. 

In addition to these programs, government supported functions such as transportation and infrastructure, law enforcement, and other areas would suffer. This would result less support for communities as well as job losses, further exacerbating problems for JFS clients.   

For the latest analysis, please read this sequestration update from William Daroff.

Thank you for your advocacy efforts!