Security And Financial Empowerment for Survivors Act of 2026

Short title— This Act may be cited as the “Security And Financial Empowerment for Survivors Act of 2026” or the “SAFE for Survivors Act of 2026”.

Table of contents— The table of contents for this Act is as follows:

Gender-based violence is prevalent in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 1 in 4 women report having experienced severe physical violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime and more than 1 in 5 women have experienced completed or attempted rape in their lifetimes. 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 and economic security.

A large percentage of the workforce are survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and many of them struggle to remain connected to the workforce as they face numerous challenges in obtaining and maintaining employment as a consequence of the abuse.

The Office on Violence Against Women of the Department of Justice defines domestic violence as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one intimate partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner. Domestic violence can include physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. Domestic violence includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound an individual.

Homicide is one of the leading causes of death for women on the job. Domestic partners or relatives commit 43 percent of workplace homicides against women. One study found that intimate partner violence resulted in 142 homicides among women at work in the United States from 2003 to 2008, a figure which represents 22 percent of the 648 workplace homicides among women during the period. In fact, in 2010, homicides against women at work increased by 13 percent despite continuous declines in overall workplace homicides in recent years.

Women in the United States are 28 times more likely to be murdered with guns than women in other high-income countries. Female intimate partners are more likely to be murdered with a firearm than all other means combined. The presence of a gun in domestic violence situations increases the risk of homicide for women by 500 percent.

Violence can have a dramatic impact on the survivor of such violence. Studies indicate that 44 percent of surveyed employed adults experienced the effect of domestic violence in the workplace, domestic violence victims report that they lost a job, and 1 in 3 domestic violence victims report that they lost a job due to domestic violence. Another recent survey found that 78 percent of offenders used workplace resources to express anger, check up on, pressure, or threaten a survivor of sexual assault, whether occurring in or out of the workplace, can impair an employee’s work performance, require time away from work, and undermine the employee’s ability to maintain a job. Nearly 50 percent of sexual assault survivors lose their jobs or are forced to quit in the aftermath of the assaults.

In a study commission by the Office on Violence Against Women of the Department of Justice, 66 percent of respondents said an abusive partner had disrupted their ability to complete education or training through tactics such as not allowing them access to money to pay for school, socially isolating the survivor, controlling or monitoring their mobility, using physical or sexual violence, and damaging or destroying personal property.

Significant barriers survivors confront include housing, transportation, and child care. Ninety-two percent of homeless women have experienced domestic violence, and more than 50 percent cite domestic violence as the direct cause for homelessness. Survivors are deprived of their autonomy, liberty, and security, and face tremendous threats to their health and safety.

The National Institutes of Health report that survivors of severe intimate partner violence lose nearly 8,000,000 days of paid work, which is the equivalent of more than 32,000 full-time jobs and almost 5,600,000 days of household productivity each year. Therefore, women disproportionately need time off to care for their health or to find safety solutions, such as obtaining a restraining order or finding housing, to avoid or prevent further violence.

Annual costs of intimate partner violence are estimated over $8,300,000,000. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the costs of intimate partner violence against women in 1995 exceeded an estimated $5,800,000,000. These costs included nearly $4,100,000,000 in the direct costs of medical and mental health care and nearly $1,800,000,000 in the indirect costs of lost productivity. These statistics are generally considered to be underestimated because the costs associated with the criminal justice system are not included.

Studies estimate that work days lost due to intimate partner violence, sexual violence, or stalking over victims’ lifetimes are worth an estimated $137,800,000,000 (calculated using 2022 dollars). According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 3,400,000 of all persons age 16 or older were victims of stalking in 2019. Moreover, 17 percent of stalking victims describe losing a job or job opportunities, 1 in 8 employed stalking victims lose time from work as a result of their victimization, and more than half lose 5 days of work or more.

Fifty-five percent of senior executives recently surveyed said domestic violence has a harmful effect on their company’s productivity. Seventy-eight percent of human resources professionals consider partner violence a workplace issue. However, more than 70 percent of United States workplaces have no formal program or policy that addresses workplace violence, let alone domestic violence. In fact, only 20 percent of employers provided training on domestic violence.

Studies indicate that one of the best predictors of whether a survivor will be able to stay away from his or her abuser is the degree of his or her economic independence. However, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking often negatively impact a survivor’s ability to maintain employment.

Abusers frequently seek to exert financial control over their partners by actively interfering with their ability to work, including preventing their partners from going to work, harassing their partners at work, limiting their partners’ access to cash or transportation, and sabotaging their partners’ child care arrangements.

Economic abuse refers to behaviors that control an intimate partner’s ability to acquire, use, and maintain access to, money, credit, ownership of assets, or access to governmental or private financial benefits, including defaulting on joint obligations (e.g. school loans, credit card debt, mortgage, or rent). Other forms may include—

Economic abuse is a significant aspect of teen dating violence, and has harmful long-term impacts on educational attainment, employment opportunities, and financial independence.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111–148), and the amendments made by such Act, ensures that most health plans must cover preventive services, including screening and counseling for domestic violence, at no additional cost. In addition, it prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against patients for preexisting conditions, like domestic violence.

Yet, more can be done to help survivors. Federal law in effect on the day before the date of enactment of this Act does not explicitly—

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

This Act aims to empower survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking to be free from violence, hardship, and control, which restrains basic human rights to freedom and safety in the United States.

Dating violence; sexual assault; stalking— The terms dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking have the meanings given the terms in section 40002 of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12291).

Domestic violence— The term domestic violence has the meaning given the term in section 40002 of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (34 U.S.C. 12291), except that the reference in such section to the term jurisdiction receiving grant funding shall be deemed to mean the jurisdiction in which the victim lives.

Employ; State— The terms employ and State have the meanings given the terms in section 3 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 203).

Employer— The term employer has the meaning given the term in section 701(b) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e(b)).

Employment benefits— The term employment benefits means all benefits provided or made available to employees by an employer, including group life insurance, health insurance, disability insurance, sick leave, annual leave, educational benefits, and pensions, regardless of whether such benefits are provided by a practice or written policy of an employer or through an employee benefit plan, as defined in section 3(3) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1002(3)).

Family or household member— The term family or household member, used with respect to an individual, means an individual who—

Family violence— The term family violence has the meaning given the term in section 302 of the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (42 U.S.C. 10402), except that such term shall include an action committed against that individual by any family member or any person who resides in that individual’s household.

Person— The term person has the meaning given the term in section 3 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 203).

Public agency— The term public agency has the meaning given the term in section 3 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 203).

Public assistance— The term public assistance includes cash, benefits issued under a supplemental nutrition assistance program under section 4 of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2013), medical assistance, housing assistance, and other benefits provided on the basis of income by a public agency.

Qualifying act of violence— The term qualifying act of violence means an act, conduct, or pattern of conduct that is or could constitute any of the following:

Sexual harassment— The term sexual harassment means conduct that is considered to be sexual harassment under applicable Federal, Tribal, or State law.

Trafficking— The term trafficking means an act or threat of an act that may constitute sex trafficking or human trafficking, as prescribed by Federal, Tribal, or State law.

Victim of a qualifying act of violence— The term victim of a qualifying act of violence includes—

Victim services organization— The term victim services organization means an organization that provides services to victims of a qualifying act of violence, including telephonic or web-based hotlines, legal assistance and legal advocacy, economic advocacy, emergency and transitional shelter, accompaniment and advocacy through medical, civil or criminal justice, immigration, and social support systems, crisis intervention, short-term individual and group support services, information and referrals, culturally specific services, population specific services, and other related supportive services.

greater leave rights for victims of a qualifying act of violence than the rights established under this Act; or

leave benefits for a larger population of victims of a qualifying act of violence (as defined in such law, agreement, program, or plan) than the victims of a qualifying act of violence covered under this Act.

In general— Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, no predispute arbitration agreement or predispute joint-action waiver, as those terms are defined in section 401 of title 9, United States Code, that relates to a claim arising out of title II, title III, or title V, shall be valid or enforceable.

Applicability— An issue as to whether title II, title III, or title V applies with respect to a dispute shall be determined under Federal law. The applicability of such a title to an agreement to arbitrate and the validity and enforceability of an agreement to which such a title applies shall be determined by a court, rather than an arbitrator, irrespective of whether the party resisting arbitration challenges the arbitration agreement specifically or in conjunction with other terms of the contract containing such agreement, and irrespective of whether the agreement purports to delegate such determinations to an arbitrator.