“I (think) this country doesn’t recognize what a serious domestic violence and child abuse problem it really has,” Jolie said of the renewed law.
to enact the reauthorized bill in the first 100 days of his presidency, and the House passed a version of it last year. Though the administration did not meet that deadline, Biden signed the bill Tuesday and advocates, including Jolie, attended a Wednesday event to mark its passage, nearly a decade after its last reauthorization.
The updated act includes an addition called Kayden’s Law, named after a seven-year-old Pennsylvania girl killed by her father in a murder-suicide during an unsupervised visit in 2018.
“My children’s health is my priority at this moment,” she added. “And my focus for the last few years has been to help my family and … to focus on helping change laws to protect other families and other women and focus on their stories.” Called a “momentous achievement” for survivors of domestic and sexual violence by Sen. Dick Durbin, D.-Ill., one of the bipartisan bill’s sponsors, the new version of VAWA will go into effect in later this year. New grants and funding will begin being distributed by the VAWA programs administered by the Department of Justice and Health and Human Services. “We’re building a world, and a legal system, that puts survivors first,” Durbin said.