Subject: House passes Violence Against Women Act - POLITICO.com Print View
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Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:46:34 -0500

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House passes Violence Against Women Act - POLITICO.com Print View

The Violence Against Women Act is finally headed to President Barack Obama’s desk for his signature.

The House voted Thursday to accept the bipartisan Senate bill, 286-138. Eighty-seven Republicans joined 199 Democrats to support the bill. No Democrats opposed it.

After months of delay, GOP leaders allowed the bill to come to the floor only after a Republican substitute version of the legislation — set up as an amendment to the Senate’s bipartisan bill — failed, 166-257.

Democrats for the most part were united in their opposition to the House version, arguing it stripped out important protections for LGBT and Native American women. Sixty Republicans joined them in opposition. Only two Democrats, Dan Lipinski of Illinois and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, supported the House version.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the lead sponsor of the House amendment, ultimately voted to support the Senate’s bill. Republican Whip Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) also voted for the Senate version, as well as the House amendment. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R.-Va.) supported the House bill, but voted against the Senate bill.

President Barack Obama said he will sign it into law “as soon as it hits my desk.”

“Over more than two decades, this law has saved countless lives and transformed the way we treat victims of abuse,” he said in a statement.

The Senate and the House passed versions of VAWA in the last Congress, but Democrats said the Republican version peeled back protections and accused them of dragging their feet on the bipartisan Senate bill.

The bill reauthorizes a 1994 law that gave various protections and assistance to women facing domestic abuse.

“The House Republican proposal, which while described in such lovely terms, are a step backward for the women of America,” said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “It’s really hard to explain why, what eyes are the Republicans looking through that they do not see the folly of their ways.”

Some Republican supporters of VAWA said that their concerns with the Senate bill were constitutional and it would infringe of the rights of the accused.

“While I support the Violence Against Women Act because it’s personal, I support the House amendment because it’s principled,” said Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.). “Our Constitution in its genius guarantees due process, due process to the accused. Innocent until proven guilty is the cornerstone of American justice… Please consider the damage we’ll have done if a court overturns this act and it’s protections because we wanted a good political slogan, rather than a good law.”

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), a former federal prosecutor, slammed the Democrats for opposing the House bill and painting the Republicans as anti-women.

“For some women, especially today, the monster is this broken political system that we have, a broken political system which manufactures reasons to oppose otherwise good bills just to deny one side a victory,” he said. “The House version protects every single American, period. But it will not get a single Democrat vote because it is our version. Welcome to our broken political system.”

Still other Republicans, like Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), couldn’t support the House version.

“This is long overdue and necessary,” she said.

Under the Senate bill, tribal courts would be able to prosecute non-Native American men accused of abusing Native American women on tribal lands – something that tribal courts currently lack jurisdiction to do. That was a key sticking point for many Republicans. Earlier this month, the Senate bill passed on a bipartisan vote of 78-22.

The House amendment was expected to fail, but allowed members to vote for a version of VAWA while not supporting the Senate bill. Still, House leaders were under pressure from members of their own party to pass the Senate version without any changes. Nineteen House Republicans sent a letter to Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Speaker John Boehner urging them to pass a bipartisan version of VAWA.

Vice President Joe Biden, then a Delaware senator, was the chief author of the original law.