On July 26, 2007, the House passed HR 3093, the Commerce, Justice, Science and related Agencies Appropriations Act, which provided FY2008 funding of $459 million for VAWA programs in DOJ. Three amendments were adopted during floor debate that increased VAWA funding $29 million above the level recommended by the Appropriations Committee. An amendment introduced by Representative Capito sought to provide a $10 million increase in funding for the Rural Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Enforcement program, for a total of $50 million. Representative Inslee sponsored an amendment that sought to provide an additional $14 million for the Office on Violence Against Women, of which $6 million was to be for services to advocated for and respond to youth, $6 million was to be used to assist children and youth exposed to violence, $1 million for research relating to violence against Indian women, and $1 million for the national tribal sex offender registry. An amendment introduced by Representative Reichert would provide $5 million for the court training and improvements to respond to victims of violence program. The sponsors of these amendments provided spending reductions in other accounts in order to maintain the total spending for the bill.

On July 19, 2007, the House pass HR 3043, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for FY2008, which provides $2.97 million for the national domestic violence hotline and $134.73 million for the battered women’s shelters program.

Both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees rejected the DOJ’s proposal to consolidate VAWA programs into one competiteve discretionary grant program with funding of $370 million.