Left Side of the Aisle #98 - Part 1

Good news #1: VAWA renewed

Two bits of good news this week.

One is that, as I expect you heard, the Violence Against Women Act has finally been renewed after having been stalled for over a year.

The Violence Against Women Act was originally passed in 1994 and was renewed in 2000 and 2005, always with bipartisan support. But this time, the reactionaries objected to the fact that this latest version sought to protect more women. Specifically, this time it included protections for women in same-sex relationships, Native American women, and undocumented immigrant women. As a result of that opposition, the law died with the end of the last Congress and had to start over with this one.

However, the Senate quickly reintroduced and passed the renewal with - believe it or not - bipartisan support: The vote was 78-22. But the House wasn't interested as the right wingers petulantly stamped their feet over the expanded coverage.

However, it rather quickly became apparent that this was a real loser for them and that there is an intensity of political reality which can penetrate ever their skulls. So the GOPper leadership in the House engineered a way to give the real wingnuts a way to say they supported the Act without actually having to do it: They held a vote on a stripped-down version of the Act, one without the protections for same-sex partners, Native Americans, and undocumented immigrants, knowing it would fail - as it did, by a vote of 166-257.

With enough of the wackos having been given some means to cover their butts, the House then voted on the Senate version of the bill, the one with the added protections, and it passed by 286-138. Obama signed it on March 7. And that is good news.

There is one sidebar to this: In the House, 257 members voted "No" on the first version and 138 voted "No" on the second. Allowing for the fact that 11 or 12 members didn't vote, it means that - do the math - a minimum, an absolute minimum, of 102 members voted against both versions. Add the 22 Senators who voted "No" and it means that an absolute minimum of 124 members of Congress - and hypothetically as many as 171 - are opposed to, would do away with, would eliminate, the Violence Against Women Act, even though it helped reduce sexual violence against women by 64% over a decade. And that is not good news. You may have come a long way, baby, but we've still got miles to go before we sleep.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_Against_Women_Act
http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/03/01/op-ed-vawa-refresh-one-step-right-direction-native-american-women
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/us/politics/congress-passes-reauthorization-of-violence-against-women-act.html
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/28/house_passes_violence_against_women_act/
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/07/politics/obama-violence-against-women-act/
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57573120/justice-dept.-violence-against-women-fell-64-over-decade/