U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp along with Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) today announced that their bipartisan bill, the Pro Bono Work to Empower and Represent (POWER) Act, to help provide access to pro bono legal services and information to victims of domestic and sexual violence victims has been signed into law.
“Domestic violence continues to be a major problem in too many homes across North Dakota and around the country,” said Heitkamp. “Since my time as Attorney General for North Dakota in the 1990s, I have been working to treat it like the serious crime that it is – while also working to make people more aware of what’s happening, what services are needed and available, and how to stop it from happening in the first place. I have been on the front lines since day one on this issue, leading the implementation of the original Violence Against Women Act in North Dakota as attorney general. I have continued my fierce advocacy on this issue in the United State Senate, and the POWER Act continues to build upon this work by making sure information of free legal services are readily available to victim of domestic, dating, or sexual violence, especially for those in Indian Country who face staggering rates of sexual and domestic violence. Years ago I told a county sheriff that as long as people continue to beat and abuse their partners that I was going to continue working to try and stop it – and I will continue to keep that promise by fighting for victims and pushing to arrest the cowards who commit these crimes.”
“We must get serious about reducing the rates of sexual assault and domestic violence in Alaska and across the country,” Senator Sullivan said. “The statistics are horrific. Roughly 25 percent of American women will be victims of domestic assault in their lifetime. On average, every day in our country, three women are killed by a current or former partner. Research has shown that when abused victims are represented by an attorney, their ability to break out of the cycle of violence increases dramatically. Our hope is that the POWER Act will help create an army of lawyers to defend victims and survivors of abuse. I’m thankful to my colleagues in both chambers on both sides of the aisle for working with me to get this bill passed and I’m grateful to the president for signing it into law.”