200 
‘‘(B) CONTENTS.—An individual may sat-
isfy the certification requirement of subpara-
graph (A) by— 
‘‘(i) providing the requesting public 
housing agency with documentation signed 
by an employee, agent, or volunteer of a 
victim service provider, an attorney, a 
member of the clergy, a medical profes-
sional, or any other professional, from 
whom the victim has sought assistance in 
addressing domestic violence, dating vio-
lence, sexual assault, or stalking or the ef-
fects of the abuse; or 
‘‘(ii) producing a Federal, State, trib-
al, territorial, or local police or court 
record. 
‘‘(C) LIMITATION.—At the public housing 
agency’s discretion, a public housing agency 
may provide benefits to an individual based 
solely on the individual’s statement or other 
corroborating evidence but is not mandated to 
do so. 
‘‘(2) CONFIDENTIALITY.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—All information pro-
vided to any public housing agency pursuant to
201 
paragraph (1), including the fact that an indi-
vidual is a victim of domestic violence, dating 
violence, sexual assault, or stalking, shall be re-
tained in the strictest confidence by such public 
housing agency, and shall neither be entered 
into any shared database, nor provided to any 
related entity, except to the extent that disclo-
sure is— 
‘‘(i) requested or consented to by the 
individual in writing; or 
‘‘(ii) otherwise required by applicable 
law. 
‘‘(B) NOTIFICATION.—An individual must 
be notified of the limits of such confidentiality 
and informed in advance about circumstances 
in which the person or entity will be compelled 
to disclose the individual’s information. 
‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub-
section and subsection (l) (5) and (6)— 
‘‘(A) the term ‘domestic violence’ has the 
same meaning given the term in section 2003 
of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and 
Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796gg– 
2);
202 
‘‘(B) the term ‘dating violence’ has the 
same meaning given the term in section 2003 
of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and 
Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796gg– 
2); 
‘‘(C) the term ‘stalking’ means engaging in 
a course of conduct directed at a specific person 
that would cause a reasonable person to— 
‘‘(i) fear for his or her safety or the 
safety of others; or 
‘‘(ii) suffer significant emotional dis-
tress; and 
‘‘(D) the term ‘sexual assault’ has the 
same meaning given the term in section 2003 
of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and 
Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796gg– 
2).’’. 
TITLE 
VII—PROVIDING 
ECO-
NOMIC SECURITY FOR VIC-
TIMS OF VIOLENCE 
SEC. 701. SHORT TITLE. 
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Security and Financial 
Empowerment Act’’. 
SEC. 702. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following:
203 
(1) Violence against women has been reported 
to be the leading cause of physical injury to women. 
Such violence has a devastating impact on women’s 
physical and emotional health, financial security, 
and ability to maintain their jobs, and thus impacts 
interstate commerce. 
(2) Studies indicate that one of the best predic-
tors of whether a victim will be able to stay away 
from her abuser is her degree of economic independ-
ence. However, domestic violence, dating violence, 
sexual assault and stalking often negatively impacts 
victims’ ability to maintain employment. 
(3) The Bureau of National Affairs has esti-
mated that domestic violence costs United States 
employers 
between 
$3,000,000,000 
and 
$5,000,000,000 annually in lost time and produc-
tivity, while other reports have estimated the cost at 
between $5,800,000,000 and $13,000,000,000 annu-
ally. 
(4) United States medical costs for domestic vi-
olence have been estimated to be $31,000,000,000 
per year. 
(5) Abusers frequently seek to exert financial 
control over their partners by actively interfering 
with their ability to work, including preventing their
204 
partners from going to work, harassing their part-
ners at work, limiting the access of their partners to 
cash or transportation, and sabotaging the child care 
arrangements of their partners. 
(6) Domestic violence also affects perpetrators’ 
ability to work. A recent study found that 48 per-
cent of abusers reported having difficulty concen-
trating at work and 42 percent reported being late 
to work. Seventy-eight percent reported using their 
own company’s resources in connection with the abu-
sive relationship. 
(7) Studies indicate that between 35 and 56 
percent of employed battered women surveyed were 
harassed at work by their abusive partners. 
(8) Victims of domestic violence also frequently 
miss work due to injuries, court dates, and safety 
concerns requiring legal protections. Victims of do-
mestic violence lose 8,000,000 days of paid work 
each year—the equivalent of over 32,000 full-time 
jobs and 5,600,000 days of household productivity. 
(9) According to a 1998 report of the General 
Accounting Office, between 1⁄4 and 1⁄2 of domestic 
violence victims surveyed in 3 studies reported that 
they lost a job due, at least in part, to domestic vio-
lence.
205 
(10) Women who have experienced domestic vi-
olence or dating violence are more likely than other 
women to be unemployed, to suffer from health 
problems that can affect employability and job per-
formance, to report lower personal income, and to 
rely on welfare. 
(11) The prevalence of sexual assault and other 
violence against women at work is also dramatic. 
About 36,500 individuals, 80 percent of whom are 
women, were raped or sexually assaulted in the 
workplace each year from 1993 through 1999. Half 
of all female victims of violent workplace crimes 
know their attackers. Nearly 1 out of 10 violent 
workplace incidents are committed by partners or 
spouses. Women who work for State and local gov-
ernments suffer a higher incidence of workplace as-
saults, including rapes, than women who work in the 
private sector. 
(12) Sexual assault, whether occurring in or out 
of the workplace, can impair an employee’s work 
performance, require time away from work, and un-
dermine the employee’s ability to maintain a job. Al-
most 50 percent of sexual assault survivors lose their 
jobs or are forced to quit in the aftermath of the as-
saults.
206 
(13) More than 35 percent of stalking victims 
report losing time from work due to the stalking and 
7 percent never return to work. 
(14) Ninety-four percent of corporate security 
and safety directors at companies nationwide rank 
domestic violence as a high security concern. 
(15) Already, 27 States and the District of Co-
lumbia have laws that explicitly provide unemploy-
ment insurance to domestic violence victims in cer-
tain circumstances. However, these laws vary in the 
extent to which they effectively address the special 
circumstances of victims of domestic violence and 
very few of the laws explicitly cover victims of sexual 
assault or stalking. Moreover— 
(A) victims who do not receive unemploy-
ment insurance benefits often lack the economic 
independence they need to escape violent rela-
tionships; 
(B) victims who lose their jobs because of 
domestic or sexual violence have lost their jobs 
through no fault of their own, and thus are the 
intended beneficiaries of unemployment com-
pensation benefits; 
(C) under many State unemployment com-
pensation laws, victims of domestic or sexual vi-
207 
olence who separate from their jobs because of 
the violence may not be eligible to receive bene-
fits because of the circumstances of their sepa-
ration; 
(D) victims who must leave a job to relo-
cate to a safe location or to take other steps to 
secure their safety may be barred from unem-
ployment benefits on the grounds that they left 
a job voluntarily and without good cause; and 
(E) victims who have qualified for benefits 
may not be able to satisfy requirements con-
cerning availability for work or the suitability of 
potential work because of their ongoing safety 
needs. 
(16) Five States provide victims of domestic or 
sexual violence with leave from work to go to court, 
to the doctor, or to take other steps to address the 
violence in their lives, and several other States pro-
vide time off to victims of crimes, which can include 
victims of domestic and sexual violence, to attend 
court proceedings. However, many States have no 
employment-protected leave provisions that allow vic-
tims of domestic or sexual violence to take the time 
off they need to address the violence.
208 
(17) Domestic and sexual violence victims have 
been subjected to discrimination by private and 
State employers, including discrimination motivated 
by sex and stereotypic notions about women. 
(18) Domestic violence victims and third parties 
who help them have been subjected to discriminatory 
practices by health, life, disability, and property and 
casualty insurers, and employers who self-insure em-
ployee benefits who have denied or canceled cov-
erage, rejected claims, and raised rates based on do-
mestic violence. Although some State legislatures 
have tried to address these problems, the scope of 
protection afforded by the laws adopted varies from 
State to State, with many failing to address the 
problem comprehensively. Moreover, Federal law 
prevents States from protecting the almost 40 per-
cent of employees whose employers self-insure em-
ployee benefits. 
(19) Existing Federal law does not explicitly— 
(A) authorize victims of domestic violence, 
dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking to 
take leave from work to seek legal assistance 
and redress, counseling, or assistance with safe-
ty planning activities;
209 
(B) address the eligibility of victims of do-
mestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, 
or stalking for unemployment compensation; 
(C) prohibit employment discrimination 
against actual or perceived victims of domestic 
violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or 
stalking; or 
(D) prohibit insurers and employers who 
self-insure employee benefits from discrimi-
nating against domestic violence victims and 
those who help them in determining eligibility, 
rates charged, and standards for payment of 
claims; nor does it prohibit insurers from disclo-
sure of information about abuse and the vic-
tim’s location through insurance databases and 
other means. 
SEC. 703. DEFINITIONS. 
In this title, except as otherwise expressly provided: 
(1) COMMERCE.—The terms ‘‘commerce’’ and 
‘‘industry or activity affecting commerce’’ have the 
meanings given the terms in section 101 of the 
Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (29 U.S.C. 
2611). 
(2) COURSE OF CONDUCT.—The term ‘‘course 
of conduct’’ means a course of repeatedly maintain-
210 
ing a visual or physical proximity to a person or con-
veying verbal or written threats, including threats 
conveyed through electronic communications, or 
threats implied by conduct. 
(3) DATING VIOLENCE.—The term ‘‘dating vio-
lence’’ has the meaning given the term in section 
826 of the Higher Education Amendments of 1998 
(20 U.S.C. 1152). 
(4) DOMESTIC
OR
SEXUAL
VIOLENCE.—The 
term ‘‘domestic or sexual violence’’ means domestic 
violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. 
(5) DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.—The term ‘‘domestic 
violence’’ has the meaning given the term in section 
826 of the Higher Education Amendments of 1998 
(20 U.S.C. 1152). 
(6) DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE
COALITION.—The 
term ‘‘domestic violence coalition’’ means a non-
profit, nongovernmental membership organization 
that— 
(A) consists of the entities carrying out a 
majority of the domestic violence programs car-
ried out within a State; 
(B) collaborates and coordinates activities 
with Federal, State, and local entities to further
211 
the purposes of domestic violence intervention 
and prevention; and 
(C) among other activities, provides train-
ing and technical assistance to entities carrying 
out domestic violence programs within a State, 
territory, political subdivision, or area under 
Federal authority. 
(7) ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS.—The term 
‘‘electronic communications’’ includes communica-
tions via telephone, mobile phone, computer, email, 
video recorder, fax machine, telex, or pager. 
(8) EMPLOY; STATE.—The terms ‘‘employ’’ and 
‘‘State’’ have the meanings given the terms in sec-
tion 3 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 
U.S.C. 203). 
(9) EMPLOYEE.— 
(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘‘employee’’ 
means any person employed by an employer. In 
the case of an individual employed by a public 
agency, such term means an individual em-
ployed as described in section 3(e) of the Fair 
Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 
203(e)). 
(B) BASIS.—The term includes a person 
employed as described in subparagraph (A) on