This week marks 30 years since the landmark Violence Against Women Act was signed into law.
The Violence Against Women Act was created within the Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women, which administers funds and helps craft policies for communities around the country to reduce domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and more.
Over $4 billion in taxpayer dollars has been administered to communities since it became law.
The White House estimates between 1993 to 2022, domestic violence rates dropped by 67%, in part because of the law.
"This didn't exist before. There were no victims' advocates, SVU didn't really exist," Victoria Nourse, who was a Senate staffer who worked for then-Senator Joe Biden.
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She helped President Biden over the years write and implement the legislation.
President Biden began holding hearings in 1990 to bring to light the issue of domestic abuse.
Nourse says it may sound hard to believe, but this was considered a controversial bill in the 1990s and it took years to pass.
At the time, victims, Nourse said, had a hard time prosecuting their abusers. Even some progressives feared too many may go to jail if the bill became law.
"There was a period in which lawyers thought you needed to give a psychiatric exam to victims because it was hysterical," Nourse said.
The abuse hotline this law created has resulted in over 7 million calls since it launched, according to numbers released from the White House.
Nourse says 30 years ago there were only two female senators, which is why Biden's role is considered so consequential. Nourse recalls how Biden blocked other pieces of legislation from passing until this one received a vote.
"He figured he only had one shot and I frankly didn't think he was gonna get it over the finish line," Nourse said.
Nourse believes this legislation is as consequential as anything else President Biden has done in his more than 50 years in public life.
Fight for more continues
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers this week are marking the milestone with ideas to modernize the law.
The Democratic Women's Caucus, led by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, hosted a bipartisan discussion on deepfake pornography and how virtual sexual assault can result in real-world harm. Celebrities and activists joined the conversation.
"I have been victim to non-consensual deep fake pornography," Rep. Ocasio-Cortez told reporters this week.
"The technology is so good that you cannot discern if these videos are real," actress Sophia Bush told reporters.
At the White House Thursday, over 1,000 sexual assault survivors and activists will gather to tell their stories and honor President Biden's legacy. The White House says new grants will be announced, including a new effort to combat cybercrime related to violence against women.
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