The House will vote on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act which was allowed to expire in 2019 amid Republican objections of provisions to include protections for LGBTQ people and a tightening of gun ownership restrictions for people accused of abuse, Roll Call reports.
The bill is likely to get some Republican support in the House and the Senate, although the vote will be tight in the Senate. This session, however, Republicans will have to go on record to vote against VAWA, whereas in 2019, Mitch McConnell, then majority leader, refused to bring the reauthorization to the floor, protecting his members from having to vote down a popular piece of legislation.
“It is a shame that we have not in the last Congress passed this bill that we sent to the Senate and, like so many other very important pieces of legislation, Sen. McConnell and the Republicans in the Senate simply ignored,” said House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat.
New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik will propose a one-year renewal of the Act as it was in 2019, excluding LGBTQ people from the provisions of the bill. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that won’t pass.
Forty-one amendments will be debated before the vote. One bipartisan addition makes “revenge porn” a federal crime. Funds will also be directed to help “culturally specific victim services programs” as well as combat female genital mutilation.
Republicans plan to oppose provisions added to the bill by Democrats which limit gun ownership for people convicted of certain crimes related to harassment or abuse. Republicans claim Democrats are “playing politics” with such moves.