Congress Finally Passes Violence Against Women Act
The Violence Against Women Act has finally been reauthorized. It will be sent to President Obama for his signature,
Though its been reauthorized without trouble in the past, the GOP decided to stall the proceedings because of new provisions that provided protection for LGBT people, immigrants, and Native American women.
Originally passed in 1994, the Violence Against Women Act “has set the standard for how to protect women, and some men, from domestic abuse and prosecute abusers.”
It was the third time this year that House Speaker John Boehner has allowed Democrats and moderates in his own party prevail over the GOP’s much larger conservative wing. As with a Jan. 1 vote to avoid the fiscal cliff and legislation to extend Superstorm Sandy aid, a majority of House Republicans voted against the final anti-violence bill.
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The GOP decision to show the white flag came after the party’s poor showing among women in last fall’s election and Democratic success in framing the debate over the Violence Against Women Act as Republican policy hostile to women. President Barack Obama won 55 percent of the women’s vote last November. Republican presidential candidates haven’t won the women’s vote since 1984, when Ronald Reagan held a 12-point lead over Walter Mondale among women.
The anti-violence bill should never have become partisan, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a sponsor of the Senate bill. “That is why I applaud moderate Republican voices in the House who stood up to their leadership to demand a vote on the Senate bill.”