Washington (CNN) -- Struggling again with an issue
important to women and minority groups, House Republicans on Thursday
failed to pass their version of a new Violence Against Women Act and
then split over a Senate version that won approval with unanimous
Democratic support.
The measure now goes to
President Barack Obama, who said in a statement that it was "an
important step towards making sure no one in America is forced to live
in fear."
"I look forward to signing it into law as soon as it hits my desk," Obama said.
Thursday's votes
reflected an emerging political reality in the GOP-led House, with a
minority of Republicans joining Democrats to pass legislation supported
by the public, including increasingly influential demographics such as
Hispanic Americans.
By a vote of 166-257, the
GOP version of the Violence Against Women Act failed to win a majority
after almost 90 minutes of debate. The House then voted 286-138 to pass
the Senate version, with 87 Republicans joining all 199 Democrats to
provide majority support.
Originally passed in 1994
and reauthorized since, the act provides support for organizations that
serve domestic violence victims. Criminal prosecutions of abusers are
generally the responsibility of local authorities, but the act stiffened
sentences for stalking under federal law.
Supporters credit the act with sharply reducing the number of lives lost to domestic violence over the past two decades.
Last year, the House and
Senate were unable to compromise on another extension of the act, with
Republicans opposing Democratic attempts to specify inclusion of native
Americans, undocumented immigrants and lesbian, transgender and bisexual
women.
However, exit polling
showed Obama won strong support among women and Latino voters in the
November election that also strengthened the Democratic majority in the
Senate and weakened the Republican majority in the House.
Republicans then changed
their stance and agreed to bring up the measure in the new Congress as
long as they could offer their own version.
The Republican proposal
deleted provisions from the Senate measure giving tribal authorities
jurisdiction to prosecute cases on Indian reservations, specifically
against discrimination of LGBT victims, and allowing undocumented
immigrant survivors of domestic violence to seek legal status.
In debate before
Thursday's votes, Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-North Dakota, said the Senate
version includes legal precedents of expanded sovereignty that could be
subject to court challenge.
"Please consider the
damage we have done if a court overturns this act and its protection all
because we wanted a good slogan instead of a good law," Cramer said.
House Democratic Leader
Nancy Pelosi of California and others repeatedly questioned why
Republicans would seek to weaken a measure that received strong
bipartisan support in the Senate.
A majority of Senate Republicans backed the act, along with every woman senator regardless of party, Pelosi noted.
"It's really hard to
explain why, what eyes the Republicans are looking through, that they do
not see the folly of their ways in the legislation they are proposing,"
Pelosi said.
Democratic Rep. Gwen
Moore of Wisconsin, herself a rape victim, paraphrased the question of
rights activist Sojourner Truth, a 19th century escaped slave and civil
rights advocate.
"Ain't they women?" Moore shouted in reference to native American, undocumented immigrant and LGBT women.
In response, Republican
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington challenged Democratic claims
that the GOP version excluded any women, saying it was all-inclusive.
House Majority Leader
Eric Cantor of Virginia said the goal was to "make sure all women are
safe," and he described the Republican version as an attempt to "improve
on" what the Senate sent over.
However, Pelosi noted that hundreds of advocacy groups supported the Senate version as the best way forward.
"This is a remarkable
day because we have clarity between the two proposals," she said, noting
one had support from both parties in the Senate and the president while
the other was opposed by "almost everybody who has anything to do with
the issue of violence against women."
The final vote on
Thursday followed the same pattern as votes on other legislation at the
end of the previous Congress, including the agreement to avoid some
impacts of the fiscal cliff at the beginning of the year.
A divide between
conservative and more moderate Republicans prevented House GOP leaders
from being able to pass their proposed legislation.
In the end, public
pressure ratcheted up by Obama led to approval of a Democratic-inspired
proposal that raised taxes on the nation's top income earners, a key
campaign theme in the November election.
It passed with backing from most or all Democrats and dozens of Republicans.
Such a dynamic signals
continuing inability of House Speaker John Boehner to marshal his GOP
members on some of the most contentious issues coming up, such as
deficit reduction and immigration reform.
Boehner risks his
standing as a party leader if he continues conceding on measures that
become law without majority support from House Republicans, which also
would fuel continuing unrest by conservatives who traditionally comprise
the GOP base.
According to advocacy
groups, the Senate version of the Violence Against Women Act strengthens
protections of particular groups of women at particular risk.
For example, one in
three native women will be raped in their lifetime, according to the
Indian Law Resource Center. Three in five will be physically assaulted,
and native women also are killed at a rate 10 times the national
average, the center said.
The National Congress of American Indians addressed the issue in a December 20 letter to Cantor.
It described situations
in which beatings and rapes by non-native men were declined for
prosecution at a federal level and returned to a tribal court as a
misdemeanor.
Federal law currently
prohibits tribal courts from imposing a jail sentence of more than a
year, so they generally do not prosecute felonies. In many instances,
such cases are dismissed altogether and a defendant can walk free until a
grand jury indictment can be obtained.
"The federal criminal
justice system is simply not equipped to handle local crimes, and this
is the primary reason that tribes seek local control over these crimes
that are plaguing our communities," the letter said.
On undocumented
immigrants, Human Rights Watch has found that immigrant farm workers are
especially at risk for domestic abuse and argued provisions in the
Senate bill "would go some way toward fixing the problem."
Those in the LGBT community are another high-risk group that will be affected by the Violence Against Women Act.
They experience violence
at the same rate as heterosexuals but are less likely to report it.
When they do, many are denied services.
About 45% of LGBT
victims were turned away when they sought help from a domestic violence
shelter and nearly 55% of those who sought protection orders were denied
them, according to the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic
Violence Against Women.
