WASHINGTON -- More than a dozen House Republicans sent a letter to their party leaders on Monday night urging them to "immediately" reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act with a bipartisan bill -- something the House failed to do in the last Congress.
"Now is the time to seek bipartisan compromise on the reauthorization of these programs," reads the letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), signed by 17 House Republicans. "VAWA programs save lives, and we must allow states and communities the opportunity to build upon the success of current VAWA programs so that we can help even more people."
The letter doesn't get into specifics and makes no mention of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) or Native American protections added into the Senate VAWA bill that drew House Republican opposition in last year's fight. But its tone suggests that at least this group of GOP lawmakers is open to considering the new provisions. The letter also gives a sense of real-world effects of Congress failing to reauthorize VAWA last year for the first time since the law's inception in 1994.
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