The U.S. Senate stands behind its strengthened, bipartisan version of the Violence Against Women Act and will never accept a weaker bill from the House of Representatives, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Wednesday.
“I will not abandon Native American women, nor leave out victims of domestic violence who happen to be gay, nor immigrant women who find themselves victims, ” Murray said in an interview, referring to three groups included in the Senate legislation.
The once noncontroversial legislation has produced an impasse on Capitol Hill that has gone on for nearly 100 days.
The Senate in late April, by a 68-31 vote, passed a renewal of the eighteen-year-old “VAWA.” It was strengthened to include provisions for protecting Native American women who are victims of domestic violence, and for immigrant women who are victims to remain in the United States while such cases are pending.
The Republican-controlled House soon thereafter passed a bill that did not contain specific measures for Native Americans, lesbian women who suffer domestic violence, or immigrant victims.
House Speaker John Boehner on Monday named eight Republicans as negotiators for a compromise. One of the GOP members tapped was Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, R-Wash., a member of the House Republican leadership and advocate of the GOP bill.
“The House is ready and willing to begin those discussions,” Boehner said at the time, and I would urge Senate Democrats to come to the table so that this critical legislation can be sent to the President for his signature as soon as possible.”
But Murray and several Senate Democrats took to the floor on Wednesday to say they will not leave the Senate bill’s additional protections on the bargaining table.
“This should make it perfectly clear to our colleagues in the other chamber that their current inaction has a real impact on the lives of women across America affected by violence,” Murray said in her speech.
“Where a person lives, their immigration status, or who they love should not determine whether or not perpetrators of domestic violence are brought to justice.”
The Violence Against Women Act has, in particular, made money and resources available to sheriffs and small town police departments that would otherwise be left unable to investigate and prosecute domestic violence cases. It has wide law enforcement support.
Boehner is squarely to blame for the impasse, Murray argued.
If House Republican leaders were to permit a floor vote on the Senate passed bill, she added, “it would pass easily with support from both Democrats and many Republicans.”
Murray said that she has not talked to McMorris-Rodgers about differences with the House. Fifteen Republicans joined the Senate’s Democratic majority in passing the expanded version of the legislation.
Murray plans to speak out across the state next week on the need to have protections for Native American women, immigrants, and members of the gay-lesbian community included in a reauthorized, strengthened Violence Against Women Act.
“Speaker Boehner ought to look beyond ideology on this issue,” she said. “This is legislation that repeatedly has been supported by members from both parties, who have supported expanding it.”
- SeattlePI
