Battered women across the country won a major battle at the end of last year when, after months of gridlock, Congress finally voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994. Nevertheless, delays caused in part by Congress' failure to pass the legislation in an expeditious manner, coupled with the delay in forwarding the Commerce, State, Justice (CJS) appropriation bill to the president for his signature, are continuing to be felt by battered women and their advocates across the country.

In mid-December, Congress finally sent the CJS bill to President Clinton. The CJS bill provides $31 million in funding for Civil Legal Assistance (CLA) grants for FY 2001. Of that amount, 25 percent must be used to support programs that primarily or solely provide services to victims of sexual assault and 5 percent must be used to fund tribal programs that assist domestic and sexual assault victims, leaving approximately $21 million to support civil legal services for battered women. Although the money has been appropriated, DOJ has not yet issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for FY 2001, citing the drawn-out reauthorization and appropriation processes as the cause for the delay.

Additionally, because DOJ did not issue the RFP prior to the 2000 election, it is seeking approval from the presidential transition team prior to issuing the RFP and currently does not expect to release the RFP until the end of January or beginning of February. This is devastating news for programs that began receiving CLA grants in June of 1999. Those grantees received 18-month grants and, thus, funding for their projects was set to expire on December 31, 2000. Although some grantees requested and received an extension to spend down their 1999 grants through March 2001, we have heard from others who have already spent their entire grants or will exhaust their funding in the near future.

Over the past few months, NLADA has had several conversations with staff in DOJ's Violence Against Women Office (VAWO) about the current situation, stressing that DOJ must make their FY 2001 grant awards prior to the exhaustion of the FY 1999 funds or must provide funding to bridge the gap between the time when the 1999 funds expire and the FY 2001 funds begin to flow to grantees. We have stressed that a gap in funding likely will result in programs having to suspend the services they are providing under their CLA grants and possibly having to lay-off staff.

We also are addressing this issue on a number of other fronts. We have contacted other national advocacy organizations that work in the domestic violence arena and have made them aware of the situation. They have agreed to work with us to apply pressure in an attempt to prevent a gap in funding. We also are reaching out to members of the transition team and are contacting supporters on the Hill. NLADA will continue to keep you posted on the latest developments. In the meantime, if you have questions concerning the VAWA situation, you may contact Marc Holladay at 202-452-0620 ext. 226.