New Year Starts With Legislative Victories for Women

New Year Starts With Legislative Victories for Women

January 10, 2005

We won! Two issues we followed throughout 2005—the Bureau of Labor Statistics' decision to discontinue collecting women workers data and reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act—have been successfully resolved at the beginning of the new year.

BLS To Reinstate Collection of Women Workers Data

On Dec. 30, President Bush signed the Health/Labor/Education appropriations bill that included an amendment that requires the Bureau of Labor Statistics to reinstate its program of collecting data on women workers. The Bureau had announced in August 2005 that it would discontinue collecting its women workers data series. Thanks to the Amendment's co-sponsors, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), and their colleagues in the House, Rosa DeLauro (D-N.Y.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who helped preserve it in the final bill, data on women's employment patterns will continue to be available.

President Bush Signs Bill to Reauthorize Violence Against Women Act

The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2005 was signed by President Bush on Jan. 5, 2006. This modest improvement was passed with overwhelming support in the House and Senate. It reauthorizes existing programs and creates new ones to prevent violence, expands programs and services, and deals with emerging needs in the areas of housing, dating violence and other needs. Over the next five years, the bill authorizes nearly $4 billion for violence against women programs, a 21 percent increase in funding from the 2000 version. NOW activists signed over 10,000 petitions that were presented to the House and Senate leadership. Still, there were many important items that did not make it into the reauthorization bill, so we continue to advocate for those proposals, including increased protections for battered immigrant women.