*ACTION ALERT ** ACTION ALERT ** ACTION ALERT *** ACTION ALERT*

Do You Have A Hate Crime Story?
A renewed push will be made this Congress to enact the Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S. 1529 - 105th Congress), as sponsored by Sens. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). In order to be prepared for hearings, NOW and coalition partners are looking for reports (news articles, videotaped television reports, studies) which illustrate the varied nature of gender-based hate crimes. If you know of anyone -- for example, a survivor of a gender-based hate crime -- who would make a good witness at a Congressional hearing, please let us know. For further information or to send your stories, please contact Jan Erickson at (202) 331-0066, ext. 768, in NOW's Government Relations Office. You can e-mail her at govtrel@now.org or send your stories to her in the mail at NOW, 1000 16th St. NW, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20036.

Violence Against Women Act 1999 (VAWAII)
The 105th Congress closed without passing the Violence Against Women Act of 1998 (VAWA II), so we are back to square one. But advocates are determined to expand these successful programs. With 104 co-sponsors Reps. John Conyers (D-MI), Connie Morella (R-MD) and Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) introduced the newly revised Violence Against Women Act of 1999 (H.R. 357) on January 19th. Valentines' Day marked the official launch of advocates' efforts to gain passage in this Congress and help is needed from NOW activists to add another 114 sponsors in the House so that the legislation can be swiftly adopted.

On the Senate side, Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) has introduced his more limited version of VAWA 99 (S. 51) and advocates are expecting that Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Paul Wellstone (D-MN) may introduce their companion measure, Battered Women's Economic Security Act (BWESA), to round out the package. Other related bills may be introduced.
National NOW asks that NOW members contact their members of Congress and ask them to sponsor these critically important pieces of legislation and also ask that hearings be held. For more information, the full text of the bill appears on the congressional website - http://thomas.loc.gov - with a summary on the NOW/LDEF website - http://www.nowldef.org/html/policy/vawa99.htm.