Women at risk
"Violence Against Women Act stalled as Congress bickers,” declared the headline in the Miami Herald. The domestic violence law has been running on stopgap funding since it expired last summer. For months, headlines have trumpeted the political wrangling blocking VAWA’s reauthorization.
In April, 68 senators—including all the Democrats and all the women—passed an expansive bill. House Republicans responded by pushing through a narrower version. The White House threatened to veto the House bill, strengthening the Senate’s hand in negotiating final language. House leadership then reclaimed the momentum by invoking the Constitution’s origination clause, which says that bills raising revenue—as one provision in the Senate bill arguably does—must originate in the lower chamber. It’s unclear what the full Congress will pass, or when.
The Senate bill includes new protections for gays and lesbians, American Indians and immigrants. Republicans accuse Democrats of inserting these as poison pills, forcing Republicans to vote either for liberal causes or against battered women. But while elected officials like to criticize each other for playing politics, the real question is this: Are the Senate’s new provisions good ones?
