Biden (as VP?) and Women's Rights

by Nancy R. Koerner – Naples, FL

Copyright © 2008 – All Rights Reserved

While I do not claim any extraordinary political insight, it would appear that the selection of Senator Joe Biden as running mate for Barrack Obama is likely to have a significantly positive impact on women’s rights issues. Adamant that domestic violence can't be cured with one round of budgetary spending, or that no single piece of legislative action will ever be a panacea to the problem, Biden insists that the scourge of DV be treated as an ongoing issue, one that needs to be addressed year after year, one congressional session after the next. He compares the concept to a lawnmower.

"Combating violence in the home is like cutting the grass," says Biden, “you can't just do it once."

Besides his well-known association with international efforts (IVAWA), Senator Biden has demonstrated a high degree of creative thinking by drafting a bill to encourage U.S. lawyers to work on behalf of domestic violence victims. Although there are at least one million survivors of domestic violence annually, only about 20%, or 170,000 in the low-income bracket have legal representation according to a 2005 report by the Institute for Law and Justice in Alexandria, Va., and the National Center for Victims and Crime in Washington, D.C. Accordingly, Biden’s bill allows for the creation of an electronic network of 100,000 lawyers who would be willing to perform pro bono representation on behalf of these victims. And the incentives are realistic. Lawyers who devote more than half of their full-time caseload to low-income domestic violence survivors for more than two consecutive years will get a 20 percent discount on their student loan bill, paid for by the Department of Justice. Lawyers who serve four and five years in their practice will get a 30 percent break. The Senator has been quoted as saying,

“There is a wealth of untapped resources in this country – lawyers who want to volunteer."

With his strong stance against domestic violence and his party already in power in both the House and the Senate, Joe Biden’s further nomination for Vice President of the United States has the potential to be a giant windfall for our cause.