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Republicans Retreat on Domestic Violence
Even in the ultrapolarized atmosphere of Capitol Hill,
it should be possible to secure broad bipartisan agreement on reauthorizing the
Violence Against Women Act, the 1994 law at the center of the nation’s efforts
to combat domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. The law’s renewal has
strong backing from law enforcement and groups that work with victims, and
earlier reauthorizations of the law, in 2000 and 2005, passed Congress with
strong support from both sides of the aisle.
Yet not a single Republican on the Senate Judiciary
Committee voted in favor last week when the committee approved a well-craftedreauthorization bill introduced by its
chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy, and Senator Michael Crapo, a Republican of
Idaho, who is not on the committee.
The bill includes smart improvements aimed, for
example, at encouraging effective enforcement of protective orders and reducing
the national backlog of untested rape kits. The Republican opposition seems
driven largely by an antigay, anti-immigrant agenda. The main sticking points
seemed to be language in the bill to ensure that victims are not denied
services because they are gay or transgender and a provision that would
modestly expand the availability of special visas for undocumented immigrants
who are victims of domestic violence — a necessary step to encourage those
victims to come forward.
Senator Charles Grassley, the committee’s ranking
Republican, offered a substitute bill that not only cut out those improvements
but called for a huge reduction in authorized financing, and elimination of the
Justice Department office devoted to administering the law and coordinating the
nation’s response to domestic violence and sexual assaults. His measure was
defeated along party lines.
(the rest of it is here)