Biden spotlights 30th anniversary of Violence Against Women Act as his presidency enters final stages

President Joe Biden continues to cement his political legacy during his final months in office, marking the 30th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act at the White House on Thursday.

President Joe Biden continues to cement his political legacy during his final months in office, marking the 30th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act at the White House on Thursday. Highlighting the landmark legislation he shepherded as a US senator, the president will host nearly 1,000 survivors, advocates, former staffers and allies at an event celebrating the legislation on the South Lawn of the White House. The Biden administration also is rolling out new measures to combat gender-based violence to coincide with the legislation’s anniversary, administration officials said. In an op-ed publishing Thursday, the president hailed the “tremendous progress” made thanks to the legislation over the past 30 years and emphasized how the measure eased the stigma around domestic violence. “Back then, society largely turned a blind eye, dismissed cries for help, or blamed the victims. It was wrong,” Biden wrote in the op-ed Thursday. “I have long believed that ending violence against women requires a wholesale cultural change – one that brought this hidden epidemic out from the shadows.” The push comes as Biden has entered a distinct phase of his presidency after he abandoned his bid for a second term in the White House. While much of the spotlight is on the candidates on the campaign trail, the president is looking for ways to reinforce key legacy items from his time in office on foreign and domestic fronts. The Violence Against Women Act, which Biden helped write and first introduced in 1990, is among the most personally significant measures he has helmed in his five-decades-long political career. The president has long called it his proudest legislative accomplishment as it extended historic protections and support to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault for the first time.