Amid Effort to Ram Kavanaugh Through Senate, House GOP Refusing to Reauthorize Violence Against Women Act

While Republican lawmakers have attempted to push through a vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination amid multiple sexual assault allegations against him, none of the party’s members have signed on to support a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which expires at the end of September.

Democratic legislators have joined women’s rights and anti-domestic violence groups in calling for the law to be fully reauthorized and strengthened with proposals put forth in a version sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), while Republican leaders want VAWA to be extended only until December 7 as part of the House’s stopgap spending bill.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has not called for a vote on a full authorization of the the bill, despite calls to do so, including from 46 members of his own party, as well as Democratic leaders and more than 50 attorneys general.

“Republicans’ decision to include only a short-term VAWA reauthorization in the must-pass minibus spending bill is nothing short of an abdication of our responsibilities to women in our country,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wrote in a letter to Ryan.

Jackson Lee’s bill includes a provision to make it easier for police to confiscate guns from domestic abusers, more funding for rape prevention programs, and eviction protections for victims living in public housing.