VAWA works because it brings people together to focus on real solutions. VAWA created a National Domestic Violence Hotline that today responds to more than 23,000 calls a month. The criminal justice reforms and victim services supported by VAWA have allowed women to reach out for help, call the police, receive protection from the courts, and leave abusive relationships. As a result, the annual incidence of domestic violence has dropped by 64% since 1994.

But rates of violence remain all too high, and one day’s glance at the headlines tells us why we still need VAWA. Through the hard work of Congress, advocates, the President and Vice President Biden, on March 7, 2013, President Obama signed the third reauthorization of VAWA into law, bringing about a wave of improvements that will protect the most vulnerable victims. VAWA 2013 ensures that American Indian Tribes, for the first time in decades, will be able to exercise their sovereign power to investigate, prosecute, convict, and sentence both Indians and non-Indians who assault their Indian spouses or dating partners in Indian country