The Hill News

During the recent House floor debate on the Republican Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle questioned my motives for opposing the legislation as grounded in politics. I think it’s time to set the record straight.
 
The truth is that I refuse to support legislation that would protect only some victims of domestic violence and would make women less safe than they are under current law. This is not about politics, it’s about good policy.
 
When I helped draft the Violence Against Women Act nearly twenty years ago it was grounded on the bipartisan belief that we should protect all women from sexual and domestic violence, particularly vulnerable minority and immigrant women. Now, behind the veil of reauthorizing certain grant programs, this bill would roll back the very protections that Republicans once championed. Specifically, the bill eliminates provisions that protect immigrant victims of serio! us crimes, such as trafficking, who want to help law enforcement put dangerous criminals behind bars and it weakens critical and longstanding provisions that allow the battered immigrant spouses of US citizens to escape those abusive relationships and obtain the permanent immigration status to which they are already entitled. These provisions were enacted in past VAWA bills with near-unanimous congressional support.

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