Senate News on Purple Thursday

By Ronda Bernstein on 10/28/2010 @ 02:00 PM

We post today’s blog to close Domestic Violence Awareness Month and observe Purple Thursday, a day meant to spread awareness of domestic and intimate violence. At the recent Sheila Wellstone Institute’s annual award ceremony, Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken were the honored guests. The award is given each year in honor of Sheila Wellstone, wife of former Minnesota Senator, Paul Wellstone, and tireless advocate for ending violence against women and children. During the program, Senators Klobuchar and Franken shared news from the Senate regarding domestic and intimate violence legislation.

Senator Klobuchar began with the story of Pam Taschuk, a Minnesota woman that was the victim of domestic violence. Ms.Taschuk apparently called the police a total of 48 times over a period of 14 years. Each time the police would come, even arresting her husband on more than one occasion, but he was always released. On October 1, Pam met with her victim’s advocate in the county attorney’s office, saying that she was resolved in her decision to finally leave her husband. The next anyone heard was a call later that night to the police station from her husband, reporting a shooting that became a murder-suicide. Police and victim's advocates expressed much frustration with the system. As the executive director of Pam’s domestic violence shelter put it, “[Pam] did everything she could to try to protect herself. She did everything she could do to take care of herself and her family; the system kind of broke down.”

Both Senators Klobuchar and Franken discussed the strides made in the Senate for victims of intimate violence. First, the Affordable Care Act will remove domestic violence as a pre-existing condition and it will remove the “rebate” process for rape kits by not charging victims for them in the first place. The Senate is also working toward increased funding for the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) as part of their reauthorization. The FVPSA is the only federal funding source dedicated directly to the support of emergency shelter and related assistance for victims of domestic violence and their dependents. They also mentioned the Tribal Law and Order Act, which, as explained in a previous blog, provides resources to American Indian and Alaska Native tribes related to intimate violence crimes.

One piece of legislation that Senator Franken was particularly proud of was the Franken Amendment, an amendment to the Defense bill that will not allow contracts in excess of $1 million to be let with companies that deny sexual assault and harassment victims their day in court and force them into secret, binding arbitration, sometimes with no criminal charges or consequences for the perpetrator.

With 1.3 million women and 835,000 men affected by domestic violence annually, we hope that these efforts will assist with reducing this problem as well as provide adequate support for victims.

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