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Eli Kantor is a labor, employment and immigration law attorney. He has been practicing labor, employment and immigration law for more than 36 years. He has been featured in articles about labor, employment and immigration law in the L.A. Times, Business Week.com and Daily Variety. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Journal. Telephone (310)274-8216; eli@elikantorlaw.com. For more information, visit beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com and and beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

GOP Split on Domestic Violence Bill

CQ (Article by John Gramlich): Republicans will face a test of unity when the House votes Wednesday on renewing domestic violence programs amid efforts by the White House, Democrats and womens groups to splinter the majority and defeat the legislation.

There are signs of division in the Republican Conference, particularly among moderates, suggesting the vote may be closer than GOP leaders initially expected. But it appears unlikely that opponents will muster the two dozen Republicans who would need to join united Democratic opposition to defeat the measure.

The bill (HR 4970), sponsored by Sandy Adams, R-Fla., would reauthorize the 1994 Violence Against Women Act for five years, a step both Republicans and Democrats say is a priority this year. The original law was written by then-Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. and offers a wide range of services and support to victims of domestic abuse. It has been reauthorized twice, each time with overwhelming bipartisan support.

But the current House bill differs considerably from a reauthorization (S 1925) the Senate passed with bipartisan support last month. It omits new protections for victims of domestic violence who are gay and lesbian, immigrants and American Indians and imposes new rules in domestic violence grant programs.

The bill has drawn fierce opposition from women's groups and congressional Democrats from the moment it was introduced in late April. Opponents contend it is too onerous on victims and another example of the GOP's war on women, a phrase Democrats have repeatedly employed to denounce the legislation.

The Obama administration has threatened a veto and is pushing Republican leaders to move toward the Senate version. The administration urges the House to find common ground with the bipartisan Senate-passed bill and consider and pass legislation that will protect all victims, the White House said in a Statement of Administration Policy.


Late Maneuvering

In an effort to make the legislation more palatable to moderate Republicans, Adams introduced a managers amendment Tuesday that jettisoned controversial language related to immigrant victims of domestic abuse.

"But some moderates remain uneasy with the measure. Charles Bass of New Hampshire has been working with domestic violence groups in his state and shares their concerns with the House legislation," spokeswoman Stephanie DuBois said in an email. Congressman Bass will continue to encourage a bipartisan agreement like the one that was accomplished in the Senate.

Bass is among seven House Republicans who wrote to Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, last week urging a bipartisan reauthorization of the law and calling for it to reach all victims and perpetrators of domestic violence, an apparent reference to the broader language included in the Senate bill.

Rep. Patrick Meehan, a Pennsylvania Republican who signed the letter, said he has concerns because the measure would scrap new reporting requirements for incidents of domestic violence at colleges and universities. The Senate included the language in its broader measure.

"I'm still studying the bill," Meehan said. I am concerned about the removal of provisions which created greater protections for victims of sexual assault and other kinds of violence on college campuses.

Judy Biggert, an Illinois Republican, is sponsoring a competing version (HR 4982) of the reauthorization that more closely resembles the Senate-passed bill. "Like many, I am very concerned that the current bill, even with changes made in the managers amendment, doesn't reflect everything we've learned over the last five years in terms of what works best for prosecutors or victims," she said in a written statement late Tuesday.

Michigan Democrat John Conyers Jr. sought to highlight the internal GOP divisions on Tuesday by offering an amendment to replace the Adams bill with the Senate-passed version. The House Rules Committee late Tuesday fashioned a closed rule barring amendments.


Advocacy Groups Opposition

Advocacy groups, meanwhile, sensed an opportunity to build opposition to the House version.

"We do have an indication that there are Republicans who could peel away from the Adams bill," said Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women. She said her group would score each members vote and characterize yes votes on the Adams legislation as a no vote on the broader Violence Against Women Act.

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence targeted Republicans from 25 states and urged its members to contact those lawmakers to encourage them to oppose the House bill.

Adams immigration changes related to the self-petition process, which allows battered immigrants to petition for legal residency if they are victims of domestic abuse.

The process applies only to immigrants who are legal residents because they are married to U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents and is intended to allow immigrants to escape abuse from spouses who are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents without fear of being deported.

Adams, who was herself a victim of domestic abuse, initially sought to give federal immigration agents leeway to interview alleged batterers as part of the evaluation of an alleged victims residency petition. Republicans have long said the mechanism is being abused by immigrants to gain legal status.

But critics said the proposed change would put victims in danger of reprisal violence because abusers would be notified of their spouses requests for independent legal status.

"This confidentiality is critical to protecting the immigrant from additional abuse, and it gives the victim the courage to report the domestic violence crimes," said an analysis of the current process by Senate Democrats. The analysis added that some abusers provide false information in an effort to sabotage an immigrants efforts to obtain independent status.

The managers amendment also dropped a proposal to end the exclusive role a Vermont immigration facility plays in handling alleged victims residency petitions.

The original bill called for that responsibility to be split among facilities in four states California, Nebraska, Texas and Vermont but faced resistance, particularly from Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., over concerns that immigration officials in the other states were not experienced in handling such requests. The managers amendment leaves the job to the Vermont facility.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that handles the requests, said in an October 2010 report to Congress that the Vermont facility should handle the petitions independently because it has operational expertise and institutional knowledge and can safeguard alleged victims confidentiality.

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