House to vote on 2 domestic violence bills
Measure drawn up by Republicans fails to edge out Senate’s version
WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders appearedunableWednesday to rally support for their version of the Violence Against Women Act, leaving them little alternative but to move forward a measure favored by Democrats and supported by President Barack Obama.
Republicans sought to replace a version of the bill passed by the Senate with their own tuned-down version, removing some controversial provisions to expand services. But their effort fell short as skeptics at either end of the party’s political spectrum raised concerns. Rather than risk alienating women by continuing to tweak the bill in a prolonged debate, leaders decided the chamber will vote Thursday on both bills, but the Senate measure appeared to have more support.
Some of the most conservative Republicans balked over the costs and what they deemed federal overreach involved in the act, while more moderate Republicans wanted the expanded protections of the Senate bill.
Oneof the moremoderate GOP voices, Rep. Jon Runyan of New Jersey, encouraged House leaders to pass inclusive legislation quickly. He said Wednesday that a letter signed by 19 Republicans likely pressed leaders to schedule a final vote Thursday, skipping the standard committee process.
But Wednesday, a handful of some of the most conservative representatives criticized their leaders’ decision to skip that step.
“This should have gone through the Judiciary Committee; this should havegone through the subcommittees. I don’t understand what aversion we have to actually going throughregular order,” Rep. Raul Labrador, RIdaho, said during Conversations with Conservatives, a monthly lunch with members of the GOPconference’s more conservative members.
Labrador and others at the lunch reiterated a concern that House leaders negotiate too many deals behind the scenes instead of using thecommitteeprocess.
Last year, the committee process — combined with election-year politics — resulted in no action to renew the act, which provides federal funds for women and other victims of domestic and sexual violence. Thelaw, first passed in 1994, has been reauthorized twice. Advocates say the act has dramatically reducedrates of domestic violence across the country, whilecritics havesaidthe studies lack scientific rigor.
“There’s gonna be a lot of people that don’t like it, but that’s the nature of any piece of legislation we do around here,” Runyan said of the bill.
On Thursday, the House will consider the Senate bill as well as a substitute amendmentthatwould drop a provision changing tribal law to allow tribal courts to try nonnative Americans, which they can’t do now. Advocates of the measure have said Native-American women who are abused by nonnatives on reservations have no legal recourse, while critics have said the law violates the Constitution and wouldn’tstandupto scrutiny in court.
The White House criticized the amendment this week for dropping the tribal provision. The White House also expressed disappointment that the Republican version dropped language that extended services to gays, bisexuals, transsexuals and victims of trafficking.