Violence Against Women Policy Trends Report 10

February 27, 2001

David M. Heger
National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center
University of Missouri - St. Louis
Political Analyst

Federal

In advance of the release of his fiscal year 2002 (FY '02) budget proposal, President Bush will tout his economic plan on national television tonight before a joint session of Congress. According to White House sources, much of the President's address will focus on tax relief, national debt reduction, and Social Security reform. $1.6 trillion in federal income tax cuts over 10 years was a major proposal of his presidential campaign and Mr. Bush has indicated recently that he plans to hold firm on this issue. In addition to cutting taxes, the President will seek to trim $2 trillion off the national debt, reducing the burden to $1.2 trillion by 2012. Tonight, Mr. Bush will also announce the formation of a high-level commission to examine his proposed privatization of Social Security by allowing workers to invest a portion of their withholdings in the stock market.

Democrats remain skeptical of the new chief executive's budgetary initiatives, openly questioning whether his tax cuts and plans to pay down the debt will leave enough in the government coffers for important federal programs. "This debate is not the Democratic tax cut versus the Republican tax cut," Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) recently told the press. "This debate is about Republican priorities versus Democratic priorities." A broad budget outline proposed by Mr. Daschle and his counterpart in the House, Representative Richard Gephardt (D-Missouri), offers a $750 billion tax cut with a larger portion of surpluses directed at paying down the national debt. Most Democrats favor the current level of discretionary spending increases by the government, while Mr. Bush prefers a reduction in such growth.

Violence against women prevention advocates are stepping up the pressure on Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to fully implement medical privacy regulations issued by the Clinton Administration last December. The new rules require patient authorization for the use or disclosure of medical information and create penalties for the improper use of health records. Advocates hope the new law will allow full medical documentation of domestic violence without placing women in fear of discrimination from employers or retaliation from their abusers. Studies show that battered women often neglect to seek much needed medical treatment because of possible ramifications from the disclosure of their abuse. The medical privacy regulations are scheduled to go into effect in April but are coming under fire from elements of the health care industry that see the rules as overbearing and too costly.

President Bush recently filled two more high-level government positions with potential influence over policy relating to domestic violence and sexual assault. Larry Thompson, a former United States Attorney, was chosen as deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice, an agency responsible for administering several Violence Against Women Act programs. Mr. Thompson is an African-American conservative who is generally respected by liberals for his considerable legal resume and sense of fairness. His only other time in the national spotlight occurred ten years ago when he came to the defense of his friend Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during Judge Thomas's Senate confirmation hearings.

Mr. Bush has called on the man who some say handed him the presidency to serve as the next solicitor general. Theodore Olson, who convinced the Supreme Court to stop the vote counting in Florida during the protracted presidential election battle last year, will now be responsible for arguing the government's position before the High Court. Mr. Olson, in his new role, would only have an impact on violence against women policy if the Bush Administration decided to intervene in a Supreme Court case relating to the issue. Recall that two years earlier the government did just that when it joined Christy Brzonkala's rape lawsuit against Antonio Morrison in U.S. v. Morrison.

State

As spring approaches, state legislative activity maintains a furious pace. Lawmakers in Arkansas, Georgia, New Mexico, and Wyoming are moving quickly to wrap up work on important agenda items before their scheduled adjournments in March. In late February, the gavel dropped on the 2001 regular session in Virginia; however, legislators there plan to return in the near future for a special session to finish work on this year's budget. Florida and Louisiana will become the last two states to convene for regular session activity when lawmakers return to their capitals in March.

With federal medical privacy regulations on hold (see above), some states have taken it upon themselves to provide their citizens with such protections. The Kansas House of Representatives has pushed a measure offering many of the same benefits as the federal proposal to a final vote on the floor. This legislation, HB 2840, is expected to win approval in the House and move through the Senate with similar ease. Insurance Commissioner Kathleen Sebelius indicates that the issue is sufficiently urgent for the state to take immediate action. "The feds and Congress have been working on a national health privacy standard for five years, and there is still not one in place," she said recently.

States continue to work against violence in the home by shoring up the law books and providing money for prevention programs. A bill moving through the Kentucky Senate seeks to disarm those subject to long-term protection orders or convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence. Federal law carries this provision already, but experts contend that U.S. Attorneys lack the resources to enforce it. Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack (D) recently signed into law the "boyfriend bill," which subjects to child endangerment laws all members of a child's household responsible for his or her well-being. The issue was brought to the forefront by the case of two-year old Shelby Davis, who was beaten to death a year ago by her mother's live-in boyfriend. Lawmakers in Maine are preparing to debate a proposal to direct $4.8 million from the state coffers to domestic violence prevention programs. The legislation boasts 140 sponsors.

Sexual assault also remains on the radar screen across most state legislatures. The Michigan Senate, joining in the growing number of states this year considering the use of DNA evidence in solving old assault cases, passed a measure to extend the statute of limitations for rape from six years to 10 years. New Jersey lawmakers voted to postpone the implementation of its sex offenders Web site, opting to study the potential pitfalls of such a system before putting it in place. Citing a recent increase in the presence of "date-rape" drugs at taverns and dance clubs across the state, a legislator in Utah has introduced a measure that would make it a crime to secretly drug someone.

Judicial

State sexual predator laws continue to come under scrutiny in both state and federal courts. A Washington State law that allows high-risk sex offenders to be held beyond their prison sentences for psychiatric treatment survived a recent review by the United States Supreme Court. In Seling v. Young, Andre Brigham Young, a convicted rapist who has served his prison sentences, argued that conditions are so punitive and his treatment so inadequate at the state mental facility that his confinement amounts to being punished twice. The Court ruled in an 8-1 vote that double jeopardy is not an appropriate challenge to civil confinement schemes such as the one in Washington.

A similar law in Arizona was ruled unconstitutional by a state appeals court because it does not require proof that the offender is unable to control his sexual impulses. Last week the Arizona Supreme Court blocked the release of a repeat rapist from the state hospital's treatment program until justices can review the decision of the lower court. The Court will consider the constitutionality of the 1996 state sexual predator law on March 20.