H.R. 5034 of 2018
The Feminist Majority supports IVAWA, which makes ending violence against women globally a U.S. foreign policy priority. The bill requires the establishment of a five-year strategy to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls around the world and authorizes funding to implement programs to address this violence. Provisions of the bill require that training, prevention, and response to violence against women and girls be included in U.S efforts in the areas of humanitarian relief, conflict, post-conflict and disaster relief programs.
Introduced in the last Congress, IVAWA became embroiled in anti-abortion politics even though it has nothing to do with abortion. Although IVAWA was voted out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, it never made it to the floor for a vote. No action was taken in the House on IVAWA.
Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) the bill’s chief sponsor, has reintroduced IVAWA in the House repeatedly since 2012. She re-introduced the Act again on February 18, 2018. The bill has 73 co-sponsors in the House and was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. There is, as yet, no companion bill in the Senate. Passage in this Congress is, again, unlikely.