VAWA finally passes Congress and has been sent to President Obama

I came dangerously close to losing my damn mind over this one. I still can’t believe it took this long to pass a bill that prosecutors people who beat their partners.

Rosalind S. Helderman for the Washington Post had a write about on it. The House passed the reauthorization of VAWA that includes protects for Native American women and same sex couples on Thursday. This is the version of VAWA passed by the Senate (sans 22 Republican Senators). It passed the House in a 286 to 138 vote. Only 87 Republicans joined the 199 Democrats to pass the bill, which left 138 conservatives opposing the bill. 

 They opposed the bill for a number of reasons, but most just because they’re all assholes. Their reasons include the new protections for LGBTQ individuals. Just digest for a minute that more Republicans voted against this bill than for it. Also, this marks the third time that Speaker Boehner allowed legislation to move off the floor without the support of a majority of his members.

This time however, the passage of the legislation seems to be rooted in the GOP wanting to get past the Violence Against Women Act issue, because you know it looks bad to vote against anything that benefits women if you expect some of them to vote for you ever again. Issue? Fuck you guys.

This reauthorization expands the authority of tribal courts to prosecute nonnative American men who are accused of crimes on Indian reservations, this address a particular problem of abuse on reservations. This specific provision caused a lot of problems for the House Republicans who believe it to be unconstitutional to expand tribal authority. Yep, think about the racial implications and say it with me, “Fuck those guys.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA.) crafted one version of the bill ignoring LGBTQ people and attempted to compromise on the Native American provision. Cantor said this about his bill: “Our goal in strength in the Violence Against Women Act is simple: We want to help all women who are faced with violent, abusive or dangerous situations.” Except LGBTQ people and Native Americans.

His version was defeated in a 166 to 257 vote with unified opposition from the Democrats and a block of Republicans, some of whom are allies of Native Americans.

Other Republicans oppose VAWA all together because they are awful human beings and think this sort of thing should be left to the locals. House leaders decided to proceed on a vote on the bill adopted by the Senate because the GOP has been taken to task and correctly dubbed the party that hates women after some sexist and all around awful comments on rape in the last year.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) said this shows how the House Republican leaders need Democrats to get bills approved: “If we have to supply the votes, we should be helping to write the bills.”

Well, like I said about damn time. VAWA is vital to protecting people in violent situations and prosecuting the offenders. 

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VAWA pass the Senate (finally)

Now, I know what you’re thinking, of course. Why wouldn’t it? Who in their right minds would oppose the Violence Against Women Act? It supports victims of abuse (regardless of gender presentation, age, race, etc.) against violence in their intimate partnerships, or at least it should.

Think Progress had a post on this by Annie-Rose Strasser. The Violence Against Women Act reauthorization passed the Senate on Tuesday afternoon by a 78 to 22 vote. All those opposing were Republican men, including Rubio, who apparently wants the “I beat my partner” vote in the next Presidential election. All female senators supported the bill.

It expired in the last session because of Republican opposition to provisions for Native Americans, the undocumented, and LGBT folks. The House and Senate approved difference versions of the bill and weren’t able to reconcile them before the end of the year.

In 1994, VAWA was established a system to help women in violent situations. It created the National Domestic Violence Hotline, made stalking illegal, and helped decrease the number of partner homicides.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) tried to amend the bill to push out protections for Native Americans. Sen. Grassley tried to strip all Native Americans, LGBT, and undocumented victims’ protections. It was voted down because if was stupid. Sen. Cornyn’s amendment focused exclusively on Native Americans, and failed on Monday. #Haters.

Last week 8 of the 22 Senators who voted against VAWA voted against moving to debate on the revived legislation. Four of them don’t believe the constitution should include federal protections for domestic violence victims.

We’re expecting a fight in the House. Freedom Works has been spending a lot of money to kill VAWA. We should be reauthorizing this and expanding the protections. I don’t know when I feel asleep and woke up in the 1950s.

We officially do not have the VAWA

Congress is a hot mess, which is generally the norm, but for the love of all that is holy 66 days without a disaster package for victims of Sandy and the death of the VAWA. I’m glad we avoided a fake crisis that was the fiscal cliff, because there is totally nothing else going on.

So can someone explain to me how we failed on the Violence Against Women Act? Because this was supposed to be easy. Maddow’s blog had a post about it written by Steve Benen.

So the VAWA was approved by the Senate back in April with a 68 to 31 vote. The bill was co-written by a liberal Democrat Pat Leahy (VT-D) and a conservative Republican Mike Crapo (ID-R). It should have been approved like it had been in 2000 and 2005. But House Republicans killed it.

Why you ask? Because the GOP hates women, gays, and people of color. The House GOP found the bill was too supportive of immigrants, the LGBT community, and Native Americans. They decided it was better to let the bill expire than to approve an expanded proposal. Vice President Joe Biden (an original author of the bill) tried and failed to keep the bill alive. This is the first time since 1994 that the Violence Against Women Act doesn’t exist.

Senator Patty Murray (WA-D) said:

“The House Republican leadership’s failure to take up and pass the Senate’s bipartisan and inclusive VAWA bill is inexcusable. This is a bill that passed with 68 votes in the Senate and that extends the bill’s protections to 30 million more women. But this seems to be how House Republican leadership operates. No matter how broad the bipartisan support, no matter who gets hurt in the process, the politics of the right wing of their party always comes first.”

So, proponents of the law aim to revive the law in the new Congress, but they will start from scratch, and in the meantime state and local governments will have fewer resources to combat domestic violence.

Republicans took a beating in the last election from the ladies. Remember the rape caucus? Yeah, they lost. Apparently, the GOP continues to believe that women are not important. Anyone who votes for these people better be able to defend this or not speak to me for a lengthy period of time.

VAWA: Fail

The House of Representatives passed a VAWA bill on May 16, which grossly compromises the law and leaves many victims without protection from domestic and sexual violence.

For those of you who don't know, VAWA is the federal law that provides legal protections and services to women, men, and children who are victims of domestic and sexual violence and stalking. It supports rape crisis centers, temporary housing for survivors, and programs to address violence against people with disabilities. It has also provided protections for immigrants confronting violence.

So, the Senate passed the bill (S. 1925) with a vote 68 to 31, and the House bill (H.R. 4970), which contained different provisions passed 222 to 205. Vice President Biden has called for Congress to pass a bipartisan bill without rolling back any protections.

A few positive changes came from the House floor, it provides for sweeping changes to the current legal protections for immigrant victims of sexual and domestic violence. The House bill would change the requirements for abused immigrant spouses of US citizens and permanent residents to apply for immigration status. Also, the accused abuser would receive information about the spouse's immigration status. So you know, the government would deport the victims of abuse. Happy Christmas wife beating tools.

This bill also reeks havoc on the U visa program. The House bill only provides a small subsection of crime victims the opportunity to adjust their legal status after their temporary visa expires. The House bill also rejected amendments that would specifically protect LGBTQ individuals. The Senate bill maintains the current protections for immigrant victims and make a limited number of additional U visas available. It would also restore Native American tribal courts; criminal jurisdictions over domestic violence. Currently, those fall outside of both tribal and state courts, but are rarely prosecuted by federal authorities.

So someone tell me again how the US is has not declared war on women?

http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/05/17/us-house-vote-step-backward-women-s-rights