House G.O.P. Offers Violence Act With Fewer Specific Protections

The version of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act that House Republicans unveiled Friday afternoon â€" which excludes specific protections for gay, bisexual or transgender victims of domestic abuse, and offers limited provisions for Native American women on reservations â€" is already facing fierce criticism from Democrats and women’s and human rights groups.

“This is unacceptable and must be rejected in the strongest possible terms,” Michelle Ringuette, Amnesty International USA’s chief of campaigns and programs, said in a statement. “The U.S. government has a responsibility to ensure that all women are protected from violence, not just those favored by political expediencies.”

The bill, which reauthorizes a 1994 law that assists victims of domestic and sexual violence, is similar to a reauthorization bill passed in the Senate last week with 78 votes, includingthose of all female senators, all Democrats and just over half of Republicans. But the House version differs in two crucial respects: it eliminates “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” from a list of “underserved populations” who face barriers to accessing and receiving victim services, and it falls short of the Senate bill in offering protections for American Indian women.

Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican of Washington and the chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, will take the lead on the bill, which the House is expected to vote on next week.

The Senate bill allows American Indian women who are assaulted on reservations by non-Indians to go to tribal courts, which do not have jurisdiction over assailants who do not live on tribal land. The House bill offers the same provision, a change from a version introduced in the last! Congress, but it also gives assailants the possibility to take their case outside of the tribal system.

While in a statement Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma and a Native American, praised the House bill’s “progress in the right direction for protecting Native women,” he added, “However, the legislation still falls short in providing tribes the authority they need to secure their territory and protect their citizens.” He said he would offer an amendment to address the “shortcomings.”

A spokesman for Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia said that the House was expected to take up the measure next week. The spokesman added, “Majority Leader Cantor is committed to ending violence against all women and has worked hard to build consensus with members on both sides of the aisle and worked alongside advocate groups to put together the strongest possible bill.”

But based on the initial outcry from Democrats, such a consensus seems nlikely.

“The Republican plan omits protections for the LGBT community, offers inadequate assistance to Native American women, and leaves out critical human trafficking provisions,” Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, said in a statement. “It was written in secret; it is not a compromise; it is not bipartisan; and it will not become law.”

House Republicans rejected the characterization that their bill does not do enough to help certain groups of women, arguing that in not spelling out all of the protected groups, their bill offers a broader, more inclusive protection for “all women” â€" including, they say, gay and bisexual women.

“What the House will consider is a strong Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act that will protect all women from acts of violence and help law enforcement prosecute offenders to fullest extent of the law,” said Nate Hodson, a spokesman for Ms. McMorris Rodgers.

Many women’s groups, however, w! eren’t ! satisfied.

“We were extremely hopeful that House leadership would introduce a bill that would safely and effectively meet the needs of all victims,” said Kim Gandy, president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. “Unfortunately, the House substitute introduced today fails to do so.”