Tribal VAWA provisions included in must-pass Senate and House omnibus package

Violence Against Women Act reauthorization had been stalled in part due to enhanced tribal criminal jurisdiction provisions.

Actress Angelina Jolie (C) speaks alongside U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) (R), as they announced a bipartisan modernized Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), during a press conference on Capitol Hill on Feb. 9.(Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON – Tribal advocates are expressing optimism that after a long stall, enhanced tribal criminal jurisdictional provisions of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) have made it into the must-pass government funding package that’s soon to be voted on in Congress.

“It does appear to include the tribal VAWA provisions we have been working so hard to get in there,” Dante Desiderio, CEO of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), told Indigenous Wire on Wednesday morning. “We are happy to see it in the omnibus package. Our hopes are high.”