Office of Public Witness Director, J. Herbert Nelson, sent out this message minutes after the House passed the bipartisan, inclusive, Senate-passed Violence Against Women Act. Congratulations!
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Dear Friends:
We give thanks
to God for what seemed at times such an easy decision to make, finally become
manifest before our eyes. (See article below) Truly, God is still on the throne
and guides the work of our office and the policy of our denomination. This is a
victory worth celebrating!
Thank you for
your support through responding to action alerts; writing letters, making
calls, voting for rich denominational policy and bugging in love our elected
officials.
We ask you to
pray that God continue to bless our justice advocacy work in Washington while
supporting your activism on the ground. It would not have been done without
you. Please alert your networks.
In the faith we
share,
J. Herbert
J. Herbert Nelson, II
Director of the Office of Public Witness
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Compassion, Peace and Justice Ministries
100 Maryland Avenue, NE Suite 410
Washington, DC 20002
phone (202) 543-1126, ext. 231
fax (202) 543-7755
From the Washington Post:
By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday,
February 28, 12:31 PM
WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday
passed and sent to President Barack Obama a far-reaching extension of the
Violence Against Women Act. The vote came after House Republican leaders,
cognizant of divisions in their own ranks and the need to improve their
faltering image among women voters, accepted a bill that cleared the Senate two
weeks ago on a strong bipartisan vote.
The bill renews a 1994 law that has
set the standard for how to protect women, and some men, from domestic abuse
and prosecute abusers. Thursday’s 286-138 vote came after House lawmakers
rejected a more limited approach offered by Republicans.
It was the third time this
year that House Speaker John Boehner has allowed Democrats and moderates in his
own party prevail over the GOP’s much larger conservative wing. As with a Jan.
1 vote to avoid the fiscal cliff and legislation to extend Superstorm Sandy
aid, a majority of House Republicans voted against the final anti-violence
bill.
The law has been renewed twice
before without controversy, but it lapsed in 2011 as it was caught up in the
partisan battles that now divide Congress. Last year, the House refused to go
along with a Senate-passed bill that would have made clear that lesbians, gays,
immigrants and Native American women should have equal access to Violence
Against Women Act programs.
It appeared the scenario would be
repeated this year when the House introduced a bill that didn’t mention the
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and watered down a Senate
provision allowing tribal courts to prosecute non-Indians who attack their
Indian partners on tribal lands.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor,
R-Va., who has spent months working on the issue, defended the Republican plan:
“Our goal in strengthening the Violence Against Women Act is simple. We want to
help all women who are faced with violent, abusive and dangerous situations.
... We want them to know that those who commit these horrendous crimes will be
punished.”
But the House proposal encountered
quick and strong opposition from women’s groups, the White House, Democrats and
some Republicans, and on Tuesday, the GOP leadership agreed to give the House a
vote on the Senate bill. It passed immediately after the House rejected
Cantor’s bill, 257-166, with 60 Republicans voting against it.
The GOP decision to show the white
flag came after the party’s poor showing among women in last fall’s election
and Democratic success in framing the debate over the Violence Against Women
Act as Republican policy hostile to women. President Barack Obama won 55
percent of the women’s vote last November. Republican presidential candidates
haven’t won the women’s vote since 1984, when Ronald Reagan held a 12-point
lead over Walter Mondale among women.
The anti-violence bill should never
have become partisan, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a sponsor of the Senate
bill. “That is why I applaud moderate Republican voices in the House who stood
up to their leadership to demand a vote on the Senate bill.”
The Senate passed its bill on a
78-22 vote with every Democrat, every woman senator and 23 of 45 Republicans
supporting it.
A turning point in the debate came
earlier this month, when 19 Republicans, led by Rep. Jon Runyan, R-N.J., wrote
a letter to their leadership urging them to accept a bipartisan plan that would
reach all victims of domestic violence. The letter, Runyan said, was a catalyst
in showing the leadership “a willingness of people in the House to really
compromise” and see that the Senate “has a pretty good bill.”
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., a Native
American, also wrote his Republican colleagues saying he was voting against the
House alternative because “it falls short of giving tribes what they need to
keep their women safe.”
Indian women suffer incidents of
domestic violence at rates more than double national averages, but Indian
courts don’t have jurisdiction over non-Indians, and federal prosecutors don’t
take up about half the violence cases on reservations because of lack of
resources to pursue crimes on isolated Indian lands. The Senate bill would give
Indian courts the ability to prosecute non-Indians for a limited set of crimes
limited to domestic violence and violations of protecting orders. Opponents
have said that raises constitutional issues.
The Violence Against Women Act is
credited with helping reduce domestic violence incidents by two-thirds over the
past two decades. The Senate bill would authorize some $659 million a year over
five years to fund current programs that provide grants for transitional
housing, legal assistance, law enforcement training and hotlines.
The Senate bill adds stalking to the
list of crimes that make immigrants eligible for protection and authorizes
programs dealing with sexual assault on college campuses and with efforts to
reduce the backlog in rape kit analyses. It reauthorizes the Trafficking
Victims Protection Act.
