This is really shameful. The Violence Against Women’s Act, the most uncontroversial law on the books (you’d think), has been allowed to expire. How could this happen? Does anyone want to be seen as being on the side of abusers?
Back in April, the Senate approved VAWA reauthorization fairly easily, with a 68 to 31 vote. The bill was co-written by a liberal Democrat (Vermont’s Pat Leahy) and a conservative Republican (Idaho’s Mike Crapo), and seemed on track to be reauthorized without much of a fuss, just as it was in 2000 and 2005.
But House Republicans insisted the bill is too supportive of immigrants, the LGBT community, and Native Americans — and they’d rather let the law expire than approve a slightly expanded proposal. Vice President Biden, who helped write the original law, tried to persuade House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to keep the law alive, but the efforts didn’t go anywhere.
And so, for the first time since 1994, the Violence Against Women Act is no more.
The new congress should take up this matter and it can’t come a moment too soon. But for all those wondering why women and minorities voted the way they did, well, there you have your answer.
