The 113th Congress is currently considering the third reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), and Congressional leaders have made its passage a top priority. However, all attempts to study and assess VAWA’s effectiveness in reducing the occurrence of domestic and sexual violence have been problematic. Also, VAWA has other significant flaws. It overlooks many of the proven causes of violence (such as substance abuse), and has been a source of waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer resources. In some cases, there is even reason to believe that policies advanced in VAWA have been backfired on victims.