VAWA allows an abused spouse or child of a U.S. Citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident  or an abused parent of a U.S. Citizen to self-petition for lawful status in the United States, receive employment authorization and access public benefits benefits. VAWA provides domestic violence survivors with the means that are essential to escaping violence and establishing safe, independent lives.

Native American victims of domestic violence often cannot seek justice because their courts are not allowed to prosecute non-Native offenders -- even for crimes committed on Tribal land.  This major gap in justice, safety, and violence prevention must be addressed.  VAWA 2013 includes a solution that would give Tribal courts the authority they need to hold offenders in their communities accountable.

 Landmark VAWA housing protections that were passed in 2005 have helped prevent discrimination against and unjust evictions of survivors of domestic violence in public and assisted housing.  The law, however, did not cover all federally subsidized housing programs.  VAWA 2013 expands these protections to individuals in all federally subsidized housing programs, explicitly protects victims of sexual assault and creates emergency housing transfer options.

VAWA 2013 maintains important protections for immigrant survivors of abuse, while also making key improvements to existing provisions including by strengthening the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act and the provisions around self-petitions and U visas.

VAWA creates and supports comprehensive, cost-effective responses to the pervasive and insidious crimes of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking.  Since its enactment in 1994, VAWA programs, administered by the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Health and Human Services (HHS), have dramatically improved federal, tribal, state, and local responses to these crimes.

• There has been as much as a 51% increase in reporting by women and a 37% increase in reporting by men.

• The number of individuals killed by an intimate partner has decreased by 34% for women and 57% for men, and the rate of non-fatal intimate partner violence against women has decreased by 67%.

• VAWA not only saves lives, it saves money.  In its first six years alone, VAWA saved taxpayers at least $12.6 billion in net averted social costs.  A recent study found that civil protection orders saved one state (Kentucky) on average $85 million in a single year.