Mikulski seeks funding for domestic violence services

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Victims of domestic violence could receive an additional $15 million in funding for desperately needed services that they had been denied, advocates say.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., has provided a fiscal 2009 Appropriation Committee Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee spending bill including $415 million for the Department of Justice’s Violence Against Women Office — a $135 million increase above President Bush’s request to cut violence against women programs.

In only one day, domestic violence programs in Maryland served 859 adults and children, but had to turn away 139 requests for help because the programs lacked the resources, according to the National Network to End Domestic Violence.

Resources were weakened in fiscal 2008 with extreme cuts to the Violence Against Women Act and the Victims of Crime Act, critics say.

“Funding increases to VAWA and VOCA are critical for helping victims nationwide access lifesaving services,” said Sue Else, president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence.

 “We recognize that the committee faces a tight fiscal year; we applaud their continued commitment to victims of domestic violence.”

The bill includes additional funding to support training for police and prosecutors, legal services for victims, abused women’s shelters, sexual assault coalition grants and rape crisis centers.

“When we fought for the Violence Against Women Act, it was not an unfunded mandate,” Mikulski said in a recent statement.

“I have absolutely no tolerance for domestic violence.”

The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year, and almost 25 percent of U.S. women report physical assaults by an intimate partner in their lifetime, according to Mikulski’s statement.

“Over the last four years, we’ve seen a continual increase in the amount of people that we serve,” said Jodi Finkelstein, director of the Howard County Domestic Violence Center.

“As a result, we’ve tried not [to get rid] of any programs even [during] more critical economic times.”

cpeirce@baltimoreexaminer.com.

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