CQ (Article by John Gramlich): Four advocacy groups that helped drive Senate passage late last month of a bill that would reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act are leaving no doubt where they stand on a competing measure in the House.
The House legislation (HR 4970), sponsored by Florida Republican Sandy Adams, is “an anti-victim bill that promotes a racist, elitist and homophobic agenda,” Rita Smith, executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, wrote in a terse letter Thursday to House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and ranking Democrat John Conyers Jr. of Michigan. The committee will mark up Adams’ bill, which the chairman is cosponsoring, on May 8.
The committee also received separate letters Thursday from the National Congress of American Indians, the National Council of Jewish Women and the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, which represents local gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) groups. The organizations object to the House’s omission of protections in the Senate bill (S 1925) for domestic violence victims who are immigrants, American Indians or gay.
“Thousands of service providers, law enforcement, court personnel, and victims were consulted over a two-year nationwide assessment, and those efforts consistently revealed the dire need for more training and targeted services to effectively address the needs of LGBTQ victims, immigrant victims and Native women,” the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs wrote. “The expertise of the field was included in S. 1925 and must be included in any bill that addresses Violence Against Women in the House of Representatives.”
House Republicans say the provisions protecting minority populations are unnecessary, arguing that there is no evidence that domestic violence victims are being denied government assistance and that Senate Democrats inserted the language in order to spark a political fight they see as advantageous.
In its letter, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence also objected to language in the House legislation that would change the “self-petition process,” through which battered immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens or permanent residents can apply for legal resident status. The House version would require alleged victims to go through face-to-face interviews with federal immigration investigators before they could be granted legal residency, and it would allow investigators to contact the alleged victims’ spouses — those accused of abuse — in the course of their investigations.
The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence says those changes would “create obstacles for immigrant victims seeking to report crimes (and) increase danger for immigrant victims by eliminating important confidentiality protections.”
The House legislation (HR 4970), sponsored by Florida Republican Sandy Adams, is “an anti-victim bill that promotes a racist, elitist and homophobic agenda,” Rita Smith, executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, wrote in a terse letter Thursday to House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and ranking Democrat John Conyers Jr. of Michigan. The committee will mark up Adams’ bill, which the chairman is cosponsoring, on May 8.
The committee also received separate letters Thursday from the National Congress of American Indians, the National Council of Jewish Women and the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, which represents local gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) groups. The organizations object to the House’s omission of protections in the Senate bill (S 1925) for domestic violence victims who are immigrants, American Indians or gay.
“Thousands of service providers, law enforcement, court personnel, and victims were consulted over a two-year nationwide assessment, and those efforts consistently revealed the dire need for more training and targeted services to effectively address the needs of LGBTQ victims, immigrant victims and Native women,” the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs wrote. “The expertise of the field was included in S. 1925 and must be included in any bill that addresses Violence Against Women in the House of Representatives.”
House Republicans say the provisions protecting minority populations are unnecessary, arguing that there is no evidence that domestic violence victims are being denied government assistance and that Senate Democrats inserted the language in order to spark a political fight they see as advantageous.
In its letter, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence also objected to language in the House legislation that would change the “self-petition process,” through which battered immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens or permanent residents can apply for legal resident status. The House version would require alleged victims to go through face-to-face interviews with federal immigration investigators before they could be granted legal residency, and it would allow investigators to contact the alleged victims’ spouses — those accused of abuse — in the course of their investigations.
The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence says those changes would “create obstacles for immigrant victims seeking to report crimes (and) increase danger for immigrant victims by eliminating important confidentiality protections.”
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