Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in the context of "Violence Against Women Act"

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A Democratic party member, he represented Delaware in the United States Senate from 1973 to 2009 and was the 47th vice president under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017.

Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden graduated from the University of Delaware in 1965 and the Syracuse University College of Law in 1968. He was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970 and the U.S. Senate in 1972. As a senator, Biden chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee and Foreign Relations Committee. He drafted and led passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Women Act. Biden also oversaw six U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, including contentious hearings for Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. He opposed the Gulf War in 1991 but voted in favor of the Iraq War Resolution in 2002. Biden ran unsuccessfully for the 1988 and 2008 Democratic presidential nominations. In 2008, Obama chose him as his running mate, and Biden was a close counselor to Obama as vice president. In the 2020 presidential election, Biden chose Kamala Harris as his running mate, and they defeated Republican incumbents Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office after defeating the Republican incumbent president George H. W. Bush and independent businessman Ross Perot in the 1992 presidential election. Four years later, he won re-election in the 1996 presidential election, after defeating the Republican nominee Bob Dole, and also Perot again (then as the nominee of the Reform Party). Alongside Clinton's presidency, the Democratic Party also held their majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate during the 103rd U.S. Congress following the 1992 elections, thereby attained an overall federal government trifecta. Clinton was constitutionally limited to two terms (the first re-elected Democrat president to be so) and was succeeded by Republican George W. Bush, who won the 2000 presidential election against Clinton's preferred successor, vice president Al Gore.

President Clinton oversaw the second longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. Months into his first term, he signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, which raised taxes and set the stage for future budget surpluses. He signed the bipartisan Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and won ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement, despite opposition from trade unions and environmentalists. Clinton's most ambitious legislative initiative, a plan to provide universal health care, failed to advance through Congress. A backlash to Clinton's agenda sparked the Republican Revolution, with the GOP taking control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. Clinton pivoted to the center in response by assembling a bipartisan coalition to pass welfare reform, and he successfully expanded health insurance for children.

Joe Biden served as a United States Senator representing Delaware from January 3, 1973, to January 15, 2009, then served as Vice President of the United States from January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Biden was narrowly elected to the Senate in 1972 and won re-election six other times; having served for 36 years, he remains Delaware's longest-serving U.S. senator. As a senator, Biden drafted and led the effort to pass the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act and the Violence Against Women Act. He also oversaw six U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, including the contentious hearings for Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. He resigned from his seat to serve as Vice President of the United States under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017; making him Senate President.

As a county councilor, Biden ran against incumbent Republican J. Caleb Boggs in 1972, after facing no Democratic rivals. He ran under a small-scale family-run campaign, but his energy and voter connectivity appealed to the public. After Biden was elected, his wife and infant daughter died in a car accident. Biden was persuaded not to resign and commuted to Delaware throughout his Senate career to care for his two sons, Beau and Hunter, both of whom had survived the crash. He married Jill Tracy Jacobs in 1977; their daughter Ashley was born in 1981.