Urge House to Pass Inclusive, Bipartisan VAWA; Oppose House Leadership Substitute

 House Leadership introduces partisan VAWA that fails to protect all victims

Legislation will be before the House Rules Committee TODAY and debated on the House floor as early as WEDNESDAY

TAKE ACTION NOW!

The House Leadership’s version of VAWA, which will be substituted for the Senate’s inclusive, comprehensive version of S.47, is a bill that excludes effective protections for LGBT, tribal, immigrant, and campus victims.  It will likely be on the House floor tomorrow or Thursday.  The PC(USA) Office of Public Witness strongly supports a bipartisan, inclusive VAWA reauthorization, such as the bipartisan Senate-passed S. 47, and opposes this House Leadership substitute bill.

Please email your Representatives and urge them to vote against the House Republican Leader’s substitute VAWA and ask them to vote for the field-approved VAWA that passed in the Senate with strong bipartisan support.  Send a message today!

The substitute bill is not the punitive House bill that the OPW opposed last year; nonetheless, this House version of the bill  fails victims in a number of critical ways:

• Fails to include the protections for LGBT victims from the Senate bill

• Removes important provisions added to the Senate bill to protect victims of human trafficking

• Provides non-tribal batterers with additional tools to manipulate the justice system, takes away existing protections for Native women by limiting existing tribal power to issue civil orders of protection against non-Native abusers, while weakening protections for Native women

• Contains harsh administrative penalties and hurdles for small struggling domestic violence and sexual assault programs and an additional layer of bureaucracy through the office of the Attorney General

• Drops the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act, which is included in the Senate bill, that improves the handling of sexual violence and intimate partner violence on college  campuses

• Drops important provisions in the Senate bill that that work toward erasing the rape kit backlog

• Weakens protections for victims in public housing

• Drops the inclusion of “stalking” among the list of crimes covered by the U visa (a critical law enforcement tool that encourages immigrant victims to assist with the investigation or prosecution of certain enumerated crimes)

Seventy-eight Senators from both parties and over 1,300 local, state and national professional and policy organizations, including the PC(USA), support the Senate-passed bill as do law enforcement officials, health care professionals, community program and service providers, faith communities, and the tens of millions of survivors and their families, friends, and loved ones who rely on, have benefited from, and used the services and resources provided by the 19-year-old law which has now expired.

We must oppose this partisan substitute and instead pass the bipartisan Senate version of VAWA.  201 Democrats are sponsors of H.R. 11, the House replica of the Senate bill. Nineteen Republican Representatives have asked the House Republican leaders to pass a bipartisan bill that “reaches all victims” and dozens more Republicans support some or all of the Senate provisions that are not included in the Republican VAWA substitute.

Email your Representative Now!

Call Speaker Boehner - Agreement on VAWA is Possible!

Possible agreement on VAWA just hours away

Urgent that all VAWA advocates make one more phone call!

Call immediately and talk to Speaker Boehner’s 202-225-0600 or 202.225.6205 and House Majority Leader Cantor’s office 202-225-2815 or 202. 225.4000 and emphatically urge them to “Be a hero and help pass a VAWA that includes ALL victims and survivors. Your leadership can make this happen.” Then let them know that a final VAWA must protect Native women and hold perpetrators accountable. 

The reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a legislative priority of the PC(USA), has been held up in Congress over technicalities.  Earlier this year, the Senate passed a VAWA reauthorization that improved protections for immigrants, Native women, and LGBTQ victims of violence.  The House bill did not include these protections, and in fact, rolled back important confidentiality protections for immigrant women.  The PC(USA) supports the Senate-passed bill and urges Congress to complete a VAWA reauthorization this year that protects ALL victims of violence.

Right now, House leadership is in talks with VAWA’s Senate champions to discuss the reauthorization, but House leaders are hesitating about the provisions to protect Native women.  There is a path to bipartisan passage that protects and provides justice for all victims – including Native American women. Under current law, Native victims face dire and life-threatening violence on Tribal lands at the hands of non-Native offenders who cannot be prosecuted by tribal courts.  Neither can these perpetrators be prosecuted in non-Tribal courts because the offense took place on Tribal lands.  The House must agree to include new protections for these victims and ensure that perpetrators of violence can be held accountable.  It’s important for us to tell House leaders that we will stand with them if they do the right thing.

VAWA has bipartisan support and in recent days, dozens of Republican members of Congress have offered real solutions and solid support for the provisions that include all victims.  Last week, Congressmen Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Tom Cole (R-OK) introduced H.R. 6625, a stand-alone bill which contains compromise language to address Republican concerns that the tribal jurisdiction over non tribal defendants is unconstitutional. These good faith efforts to find common ground and a path forward must not be dismissed. 

CALL immediately to Speaker Boehner’s 202-225-0600 or 202.225.6205 and House Majority Leader Cantor’s office 202-225-2815 or 202. 225.4000 and strongly urge House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Speaker Boehner to seize the moment and get this bill done with the compromise tribal jurisdictional provisions intact.  This is their opportunity to stand firm with victims of violence and we are prayerful and optimistic that they will put politics aside and pass a VAWA inclusive of those who have been left behind so far.  House leadership needs to hear loud and clear that now is the time to pass a VAWA for all victims—Native women included.  And they need to also hear that a VAWA which does not protect Native women and does not hold perpetrators accountable is unacceptable. 

All victims of violence – including Native Women - cannot afford to wait another year for justice.

See previous posts about the Violence Against Women Act:

Sept. 24 - Orange Day: Say NO to Violence Against Women

July 24 - Stand with Presbyterian Women: Take Action for Peace and Justice

May 11 - House Bill (HR 4970) is NOT the Real VAWA

April 24 - Tell the Senate: Vote YES on the Reauthorization of VAWA (S. 1925) 

House Bill (HR 4970) is NOT a real VAWA

Last Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee marked up and passed the Adams (R-FL) version of the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization, HR 4970.  This bill fails to live up to the bipartisan Senate-passed bill (S 1925), which provides improved protections for particularly vulnerable populations.  In fact, this House bill turns back the clock on the Violence Against Women Act and is NOT a real VAWA reauthorization. 

The full House is expected to vote early this week.  Tell your Representative to vote NO on HR 4970 – it’s not the VAWA reauthorization we want.

The PC(USA), together with our interfaith partners, has been working to support the Senate-passed VAWA reauthorization (S 1925) and to defeat this harmful House bill that hurts and excludes certain survivors of violence from protections and access to the help and services they need.  In some cases, the Adams bill gives more rights to perpetrators than to victims.

The Violence Against Women Act, enacted in 1994, recognizes the insidious and pervasive nature of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, an stalking, and it supports comprehensive, effective, and costs saving responses to these crimes.  VAWA programs, administered by the Departments of Justice and Health & Human Services, give law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges the tools they need to hold offenders accountable and keep communities safe, while supporting victims. 

The Senate-passed bill includes provisions that provide new protections for Native American women, immigrants, and LGBT victims.  The Adams bill (HR 4970) approved by the House Judiciary committee not only fails to include these new provisions, but actually rolls back important protections, including confidentiality, for immigrant victims.  In essence, this bill is picking and choosing which victims of domestic and intimate partner violence should get help.

Write to your Representative today! Tell him/her to vote NO on HR 4970- it’s not the VAWA reauthorization we want. [link]

We applaud members of the Judiciary committee who attempted to improve the Adams bill by offering amendments (all of which failed) to include vulnerable communities, such as Native women, LGBT victims, and immigrants. Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI) even offered a substitute amendment that closely mirrors the bipartisan Senate-passed bill, but that amendment was not allowed to be considered or debated. In the end, the improving amendments were not adopted, and Committee members who stand with ALL victims of violence voted NO.  Find out if your Member is on the Committee and how he/she voted below.*

Despite these disappointing results, we are not giving up. The VAWA Reauthorization is essential!  Instead of the Adams bill, the PC(USA) supports HR 4271, introduced by Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) -- a bill that mirrors the bipartisan Senate-passed bill.  The first step is to urge the full House to vote NO on the Adams bill, HR 4970, and to support instead HR 4271, an inclusive VAWA that is a real step forward for all victims of violence.

WE NEED TO FLOOD REPRESENTATIVES’ OFFICES WITH MESSAGES!  

For more information, check out www.4vawa.org.

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*Members who voted in favor of HR 4970 in committee: Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX), Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-CA), Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA), Rep.  Steve Chabot (R-OH), Rep.  Darrell Issa (R-CA), Rep.  Randy Forbes (R-VA), Rep.  Steve King (R-IA), Rep.  Trent Frank (R-AZ), Rep.  Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rep.  Tim Griffin (R-AR), Rep.  Thomas Marino (R-PA), Rep.  Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Rep.  Mike Ross (R-AR), Rep.  Sandy Adams (R-FL), Rep.  Mark Amodei (R-NV)

*Members who voted against HR 4970 in committee: Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), Rep. JerryNadler (D-NY), Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), Rep. Pedro Pierluisi (D-PR), Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL), Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO)

Tell the Senate -- vote YES on the Reauthorization of VAWA (S. 1925)

 Reauthorization of VAWA (S. 1925)

The bipartisan Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization bill (S. 1925) protects all victims of violence – domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.  This bill is expected for a vote in the Senate as early as today.  Tell your Senators to vote to keep all of the critical provisions, including those protections for Tribal women, immigrants, and LGBTQ victims, in the bill.

Since its passage in 1994, VAWA has a proven track record of protecting women from domestic violence, reducing the annual incidence of domestic violence by more than 50 percent. VAWA was the first U.S. federal law acknowledging domestic violence and sexual assault as crimes. This law passed the Senate unanimously in 2000 and 2005, and 47 state attorneys general support its reauthorization now.

The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA -- S. 1925), a bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Mike Crapo (R-ID), streamlines programs to improve effectiveness, increases accountability to ensure that all victims and survivors receive the greatest benefit, and provides critical improvements to respond to the unmet needs of communities across the country. In particular, S. 1925 explicitly strengthens protections for those experiencing violence at the hands of a same-sex partner, as well as for immigrants and Native American women.

The bill currently has 61 cosponsors in the U.S. Senate. With strong bipartisan support, a vote on the Senate floor is expected as early as Wednesday, April 25!  

Tell your Senators to vote in favor of reauthorization of VAWA S. 1925.