Photo courtesy of cindyaxneforcongress.com

The U.S. House of Representatives approved reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act this week, with new provisions including one from the Congress member of Iowa’s Third District.

Congresswoman Cindy Axne (D) successfully amended the legislation to include a provision to increase grant funding from $40 to $60 million annually for local law enforcement, state agencies, and community organizations to better combat and prosecute violence against women. Axne stresses the need for these grants, “Our law enforcement agencies are understaffed and under-resourced, and they’re doing an incredible job given the responsibilities they have and the lack of resources. So what this would do is improve the capacity of local communities to develop and strengthen effective law enforcement and prosecution strategies so that they can combat violent crimes against women, and also helps to develop and strengthen victim services in cases involving violent crimes against women.”

Other new provisions in the reauthorized Violence Against Women Act lower the criminal threshold barring someone from buying a gun to include misdemeanor convictions of domestic abuse or stalking, and expands existing firearm prohibitions to include dating partners convicted of abuse or stalking charges. To hear more from Axne, listen to Thursday’s Let’s Talk Guthrie County program at raccoonvalleyradio.com.