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108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 777

To authorize grants to States to fund arrangements between local police 

departments and public accommodations to have the accommodations 

serve as emergency domestic violence shelters. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 13, 2003

Mr. ANDREWS introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL

To authorize grants to States to fund arrangements between 

local police departments and public accommodations to 

have the accommodations serve as emergency domestic 

violence shelters.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Domestic Violence 

5 Shelter Coordination Act of 2003’’. 
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1 SEC. 2. STATE GRANTS FOR EMERGENCY DOMESTIC VIO2 LENCE SHELTERS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General may make 

4 grants to States to enable the States to provide local police 

5 departments within the States with funds to pay to have 

6 hotels, motels, and other places of public accommodation 

7 serve as emergency domestic violence shelters. 

8 (b) APPLICATION.—The Attorney General shall by 

9 regulation prescribe the manner in which grant funds 

10 under subsection (a) are to be made available to local po11 lice departments for emergency domestic violence shelters. 

12 Such regulation shall include—

13 (1) a requirement that a State may not receive 

14 funds from the Attorney General under subsection 

15 (a) unless the State demonstrates, to the satisfaction 

16 of the Attorney General, that—

17 (A) there is a shortage of emergency do18 mestic violence shelters in the State; 

19 (B) appropriate measures will be taken 

20 with respect to a public accommodation to be 

21 used as an emergency domestic violence shelter 

22 for privacy of, and security for, the users of the 

23 shelter; and 

24 (C) there will be cooperation between the 

25 emergency domestic violence shelters in the 

26 State and the local police departments; and 
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1 (2) a requirement that no place of public ac2 commodation may be used as an emergency domestic 

3 violence shelter without the consent of the owner of 

4 the accommodation. 

5 To receive a grant under subsection (a) a State shall sub6 mit an application to the Attorney General which shall in7 clude a plan prepared in accordance with the regulation 

8 of the Attorney General for the distribution of grant funds 

9 to local police departments. 

10 (c) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section, the 

11 term ‘‘domestic violence’’ includes acts or threats of vio12 lence, not including acts of self-defense, committed by a 

13 current or former spouse of the victim, by a person with 

14 whom the victim shares a child in common, by a person 

15 who is cohabiting with or has cohabited with the victim, 

16 by a person who is or has been in a continuing social rela17 tionship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim, 

18 by a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim 

19 under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdic20 tion, or by any other person against a victim who is pro21 tected from that person’s acts under the domestic or fam22 ily violence laws of the jurisdiction. 
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1 (d) AUTHORIZATION.—There are authorized to be ap2 propriated to the Attorney General for grants under sub3 section (a) such sums as may be necessary.

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