Shaheen in the Concord Monitor: “Partisan politics shouldn’t get in the way of addressing the COVID crisis, and it shouldn’t stop Republican leadership from working with us to support survivors and prevent domestic and sexual violence.”

Yesterday, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), the Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that funds the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), authored an op-ed for the Concord Monitor, underscoring the urgent need to deliver federal relief to organizations providing assistance to domestic and sexual violence survivors amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shaheen emphasized how the pandemic has exacerbated a number of existing issues in our communities, including domestic and sexual violence, with many people trapped at home with their abusers due to stay-at-home orders and social distance practices. The Senator highlighted her efforts to deliver federal funding to New Hampshire assistance organizations on the frontlines and her legislation that was signed into law that gives survivors new legal rights to see their cases through and seek justice. Shaheen argues that while these measures are important, Congress must engage in good-faith efforts to help survivors and organizations during this critical time.

Shaheen closed her op-ed with a call for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and congressional Republicans to end the partisan gridlock that’s blocked reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which expired over a year ago, and more recently, stonewalled bipartisan negotiations on urgently needed COVID-19 relief legislation that responds to these needs in New Hampshire and communities across the nation.

Shaheen wrote, “Partisan politics shouldn’t get in the way of addressing the COVID crisis, and it shouldn’t stop Republican leadership from working with us to support survivors and prevent domestic and sexual violence. October is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. I’ll continue to call for my Republican colleagues to stop obstructing, and help us ensure that the American people’s government again starts to work for the American people.” 

Her op-ed can be read in full here in the Concord Monitor.